Alliances read the Lightning Thief
by rowlingandriordanfan1
Summary: Voldemort has made alliances with Kronos. Hogwarts and Camp Half-Blood must unite to defeat them. But first, they'll have to read each other's books, to get to know each other better. For Percy, it's it's Battle of the Labyrinth. For Harry, it's the Order of the Phoenix. The Beyond the Vial chapter hasn't happened yet.
1. Introductions

It was a regular day at Camp Half-Blood. The sun sparkled against the blue sky and a pleasantly cool breeze wafted through the air.

Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon, was trying-and failing-to shoot an arrow at the target. Even though he was aiming at the little red circle in the middle, his arrow somehow impaled itself in the sign that pointed towards the strawberry fields.

"Nice, Perce," said a voice. Percy whipped around; his friend Thalia, daughter of Zeus and lieutenant of the Hunters of Artemis, stood behind him, smirking.

"Thalia!" Percy grinned.  
"You suck at archery," Thalia told him as she gave him a friend-hug. "How's Annabeth?" "She's fine," Percy replied. "She's studying up on her Greek Mythology, even though she's like a human Encyclopedia."  
"Hey, Sparkles!" yelled Travis Stoll, older brother to Connor Stoll, who was, of course, right next to him. "'Sup?"  
"NEVER CALL ME SPARKLES!" Thalia yelled. She relaxed. "Hi, Travis. Connor."  
"Somebody doesn't appreciate Twilight," said a new voice. Katie Gardner stood behind them.  
"Katieflower!" Travis draped an arm around her shoulders. "You're looking fine today."

Katie rolled her eyes. "Stoll." She smiled at Thalia. "Hi, Thalia."  
Grover Underwood the satyr and Percy's best friend tripped over. "Thalia! The Hunters are back?" he asked.  
"Hey, Goat-Boy," she said. Nico di Angelo, son of Hades, waved at them from a safe distance of the archery fields.  
"Why's Nico all the way over there?" Thalia asked, frowning.  
"'Cause Percy's doing archery," replied Connor. "Even Chiron stays away."  
"Glad to know I'm loved," Percy grumbled.

"Let's go find Annabeth," Thalia suggested. As they all stepped towards the Athena Cabin, Chiron called, "Counselors, Grover and Rachel please come to the Big House!"

They all looked at each other, and then sprinted towards the Big House.

Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena, was already there, looking half-nervous, half-excited. "What is it, Chiron?" asked Percy, taking his seat.  
Chiron looked at the cabin counselors seated around the ping pong table gravelly.  
"Kronos has made alliances with Voldemort," said Chiron.

Connor and Travis-they co-led the Hermes cabin-burst out laughing. Everyone turned to stare at them.

"Why are you laughing?" demanded Lou Ellen from Hecate.

"Voldy...mort..." Travis shook with laughter. "Moldy wart..."  
"You are SO stupid," sighed Katie.

"We will join with the witches and wizards from Hogwarts-" began Chiron.

"What is that, a skin condition?" Connor asked innocently.

Lou Ellen smacked him. "Shut up, Connor."

"As I was saying," Chiron continued, smiling slightly, "we will leave for England tomorrow." Grover's jaw dropped. "E-England?" he demanded through the mouthful of ping-pong ball. "Alright!" grinned Travis.  
Everyone else just stared at each other, shocked. England? TOMORROW?!

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was normal. Everyone was getting ready to go to their classes.

Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived, walked down the hallways with his two best friends, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley.

"So," said Hermione, handing them their schedules. "I updated your new schedules." "Thanks, Mione," said Ron, taking it from his girlfriend.

Dumbledore, the wise old headmaster of Hogwarts, said with his voice magnified, "Students, please report to the Great Hall. We have an announcement."

Ron and Hermione looked at Harry, who shrugged. Dumbledore hadn't mentioned any announcement.  
As everyone filed into the Great Hall, Dumbledore waved his wand.

A hologram appeared and as soon as everyone filed in, Dumbledore stood. All talk stopped.  
"Students," he said. "Voldemort has made alliances."  
"Alliances?" demanded Fred Weasley, frowning.  
"Yes, Mr. Weasley," nodded Dumbledore. "He made alliances with Kronos."  
"Kronos!" exclaimed Hermione. "From Greek Mythology?!"  
"Yes, Ms. Granger," Dumbledore nodded gravelly. "We must unite with the demigods to be equal with our enemies."  
"Demigods?" asked Neville, frowning.

Dumbledore waved his wand at the hologram. The orientation video usually showed to new demigods appeared.

After the five-minute-long video, everyone understood.

"Chiron is my good friend," said Dumbledore. "And here they are now." He waved his wand.

The huge, heavy wooden double doors burst open as if on cue. A guy around sixteen or seventeen with black hair, sea-colored eyes and a tan complexion came in, riding a pure-black Pegasi, followed by a bunch of other people. All of the campers from the camp wore identical orange T-Shirts that read CAMP HALF-BLOOD and clay-bead necklaces. They all had weapons strapped to themselves. There were about two hundred campers, dryads, satyrs and a mortal in all. (The mortal wore a white Greek chiton.) "I'm Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon," the black-haired guy said, grinning.  
Suddenly, identical twins, whooping and hollering on their own Pegasi, flew forwards.  
"He's Percy freaking Jackson!" one yelled.  
"Oh, gods, really? Can I have an autograph?" the other joked. Both had light curly brown hair, pointy features and looked ready to pickpocket someone. Fred and George grinned.  
"Shut up," advised a girl with a deep tan, curly blonde hair pulled back into a ponytail and gray eyes.  
"Aw, Annie, no," whined one twin.  
"Don't call me that," the girl warned. "I'm Annabeth Chase, official architect of Olympus, daughter of Athena (who is goddess of wisdom and battle strategy) and a hero of Olympus."

"Wait!" interrupted one twin. "I'm Connor Stoll, son of Hermes, and this idiot's brother!" Ah. So they looked like twins but weren't.  
"And I'm Travis Stoll," the other twin added. "Son of Hermes and the better-looking one."

"You two aren't twins?" asked Fred.  
"We look like twins-" began Connor.  
"-But I'm more handsome," finished Travis. "And I'm one year older, and an inch taller." He smirked. "And _I_ have a girlfriend!"  
"Oh, quit being stupid," a girl with long, shiny hair pulled back into a low ponytail and brown eyes said.  
Travis grinned down at her. "Hey, Katieflower! Whassup?"

"Don't call me that, Travis!" the girl yelled back up. "Or I'll shove my dagger right up your-"

"Not in front of the children, honey," Travis cut in, grinning. The girl shot him a nasty look. Connor cracked up.  
Sirius and Remus exchanged sad smiles; Travis and Katie were just like James and Lily.

"He's just like you," Angelina Johnson told Fred, smiling slightly. "Annoying."  
"Hey!" Fred exclaimed.

"I'm Katie Gardner," 'Katieflower' said. "Daughter of Demeter, hero of Olympus-"

"My girlfriend," Travis put in.  
"Shut UP!" Katie shouted back. She rolled her eyes but smiled. Annabeth and Percy rolled their eyes as well.

A satyr with curly hair, a goatee and a reed pipe hanging from his belt, waved. "I'm Grover Underwood, Lord of the Wild, hero of Olympus, satyr!" he exclaimed. "And Percy's best friend! What's for lunch?"  
"You just ate!" Annabeth exclaimed.  
"So?" Grover moaned longingly. "I smell enchiladas and regret." "Yeah, _Percy_," a girl with raven-black hair, punk clothes and heavy black makeup agreed, grinning. "The goat smells REGRET."  
"Shut up, Pinecone-Face," Percy shot back.  
"Make me, Kelp-Head!" the girl retorted. She turned back to the others. "I'm Thalia Grace, daughter of Zeus, lieutenant of Artemis, hero of Olympus."  
A thin guy with white skin and shaggy black hair marched forwards. "Nico di Angelo, son of Hades," he said. "I'm a hero of Olympus."

The mortal wearing a chiton swept forwards. "Rachel Elizabeth Dare, the Oracle, a mortal who can see through the Mist," she grinned. She had red hair, freckles and green eyes. "Percy's almost-girlfriend. I'm a hero of Olympus."

Percy reddened. Connor and Travis catcalled.

Annabeth smirked. "Emphasis on ALMOST," she added, tousling Percy's untidy hair.  
"Don't even bother trying to flatten my hair," he said smugly. "It won't." Harry self-consciously tried to flatten his own hair.

A girl with long, perfect blonde hair came forwards.  
"Silena Beauregard," she smiled. "Daughter of Aphrodite, died in the Titan War, I am a hero of Olympus."  
An African-American guy came next. "Beckendorf, son of Hephaestus," he grinned. "Died because of Kronos. Percy blamed himself." Percy sheepishly looked down. "I am a hero of Olympus." "Like Cedric!" someone shouted.  
"Cedric?" Beckendorf said, frowning. "The kid who was killed in the fourth book?"

Everyone else introduced themselves. With a lot of laughter, joking and chatter, the campers took a seat at three tables marked CAMP HALF-BLOOD. Then, with a mighty flash of golden light, appeared the gods and goddesses, who introduced themselves superiorly. While, most of them did, anyway.

"I'm Hermes, god of messengers, thieves, hospitality and pranking!" Hermes exclaimed, grinning.  
"Hermes, we've been over this," Athena said impatiently. "You are NOT the god of pranking!"  
"She's right," Apollo butted in. "I'M the god of pranking and awesomeness!"  
"Really?" Artemis asked skeptically. "Are you sure about that? What about the god of idiots?"  
Thrones appeared and they settled down, Hermes and Apollo grinning. Poseidon winked at Percy and sat down as well.

"Welcome Camp Half-Blood," said Dumbledore. "We are here to read about each others' lives."  
"Great," said Chiron. "Percy will go first." The Weasleys and their friends looked at Percy Weasley, who shrugged. "Percy Jackson," Chiron confirmed. Everyone nodded, understanding. A stack of books appeared.

"I'll read!" Hermione suggested. She took the first book and read, "The Lightning Thief."

Percy groaned, and Annabeth smirked.


	2. Vaporizing algebra teachers: math stinks

**CHAPTER ONE-I ACCIDENTLY VAPORIZE MY PRE-ALGEBRA TEACHER **

"That's such an odd title," said Luna dreamily.  
"Well, yeah..." said Percy, "oops."

**Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood.**

"Nobody does," said Percy grimly.  
"Why not?" asked Ron.  
"'Cause of all the pain and death," Thalia said pleasantly. "And sometimes you get turned into a pine tree."  
All the demigods turned and glared at Zeus and Hades, who squirmed in their seats.

**If you're reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is:** **close this book right now. Believe what ever lie your mom or dad told you about your birth, and try to lead a normal life.**

"Good advice, Perce," nodded Travis solemnly. "If only your advice didn't always backfire." **Being a half-blood is dangerous. It's scary. Most of the time, it gets you killed in painful, nasty ways.**

"Sounds...fun," said Ginny.

**If you're a normal kid, reading this because you think it's fiction, great. Read on. I envy you for being able to believe that none of this ever happened.**

**But if you recognize yourself in these pages—if you feel something stirring inside—stop reading immediately. You might be one of us. And once you know that, it's only a matter of time before ****_they _****sense it too, and they'll come for you.**

"Come for us?" frowned Neville. "Why?"

"'Cause monsters and Kronos murder anyone who's against them," said Percy.

**Don't say I didn't warn you.**

"OKAY!" yelled the Stolls in unison.

**My name is Percy Jackson. I'm twelve years old. Until a few months ago, I was a boarding student at Yancy Academy, a private school for troubled kids in upstate New York.**

Grover grinned. "That school stunk," he said, "until you...ah, never mind," he added hastily as everyone who didn't know looked at him.

**Am I a troubled kid? Yeah. You could say that.**

"He FINALLY admits it!" Thalia said, raising her arms to the sky. "Thank Zeus!"  
"Shut up," Percy grumbled, shoving her.

**I could start at any point in my short miserable life to prove it**

"Miserable life?" Poseidon asked nervously.

Percy groaned and dropped his head to the table.

**but things really started going bad last May, when our sixth-grade class took a field trip to Manhattan. Twenty-eight mental-case kids and two teachers on a yellow school bus, heading to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to look at ancient Greek and Roman stuff.**

"Sounds so exciting!" Annabeth said, and the Ravenclaws and Hermione nodded in agreement.

**I know it sounds like torture.**

The smart people glared at Percy. Athena muttered, "Seaweed Brain."  
"That's MY nickname for him, too!" Annabeth agreed.

"What is it, Pick On Percy Day?" Percy asked.

**Most Yancy field trips were. But Mr. Brunner, our Latin teacher, was leading this trip, so I had hopes.**

**Mr. Brunner was this middle-aged guy in a motorized wheelchair. He had thinning hair and a scruffy beard and a frayed tweed jacket, which always smelled like coffee. You wouldn't think he'd be cool, but he told stories and jokes and let us play games in class.**

"YEAH! GO, CHIRON!" yelled the Stolls.

**He also had this awesome collection of Roman armor and weapons, so he was the only teacher whose class didn't put me to sleep.**

"No appreciation for education..." muttered Athena. Poseidon sighed.  
"Come on, Athena, cut my son some slack, class IS boring," Poseidon said.

"Like Ron and Hermione," George muttered to Fred, and they snickered.

**I hoped the trip would be okay. At least, I hoped that for once I wouldn't get in trouble.**

**Boy, was I wrong.**

"Oh no, Seaweed Brain, what now?" Annabeth groaned.

**See, bad things happen to me on field trips. Like at my fifth-grade school, when we went to the Saratoga battlefield, I had this accident with a Revolutionary War cannon. I wasn't aiming for the school bus, but of course I got expelled anyway. **

"CLASSIC!" hooted the Stolls.  
"NICE!" The Weasley twins agreed.

**And before that, at my fourth-grade school, when we took a behind-the-scenes tour of the Marine World shark pool, I sort of hit the wrong lever on the catwalk and our class took an unplanned swim.**

"We should do that!" Travis said, to his brother and the Weasley twins.  
"Oh, NO!" Katie said, and everyone looked at her. "The Stolls have met their match and the world will end."  
Everyone groaned as well.

**And the time before that... Well, you get the idea.**

"Aw, can you tell us more?" asked Connor.  
"Maybe later," chuckled Percy J.

**This trip, I was determined to be good.**

**All the way into the city, I put up with Nancy Bobofit, the freckly, redheaded kleptomaniac girl, hitting my best friend Grover in the back of the head with chunks of peanut butter-and-ketchup sandwich.**

"Maybe it's a Weasley," sneered Draco.  
"Shut up Malfoy," replied Harry.

"Make me, Potter," Draco replied.

"READ!" roared Zeus and the two boys stopped.

**Grover was an easy target. He was scrawny. He cried when he got frustrated. He must've been held back several grades, because he was the only sixth grader with acne and the start of a wispy beard on his chin. On top of all that, he was crippled.**

"Hahahaha," the Stolls cracked up.

Grover blushed. "It was a satyr-undercover-thing!" he protested.  
"Right," Rachel nodded, smiling. "That's what it is."

**He had a note excusing him from PE for the rest of his life because he had some kind of muscular disease in his legs. He walked funny, like every step hurt him, but don't let that fool you. You should've seen him run when it was enchilada day in the cafeteria.**

Everyone cracked up.  
"That'll blow someone's cover," grinned Percy.  
"Oops," Grover's ears turned red, and Ron grinned; someone else like him!

**Anyway, Nancy Bobofit was throwing wads of sandwich that stuck in his curly brown hair, and she knew I couldn't do anything back to her because I was already on probation. The headmaster had threatened me with death**

"WHAT?!" Poseidon yelled.  
"Keep reading," Zeus sighed.

** by in-school suspension if anything bad, embarrassing, or even mildly entertaining happened on this trip.**

"Aw," the Stolls groaned.

"Oh," Poseidon blinked.

**"I'm going to kill her," I mumbled.**

**Grover tried to calm me down. "It's okay. I like peanut butter."**

"In your hair?" Luna questioned. "Hmmm...maybe I should try that..."  
Everyone stared at her. Rachel nodded.  
"Good idea, Luna," she said. "I'll join you."  
**He dodged another piece of Nancy's lunch.**

"I want some violence people! Kill her already!" Ares shouted.

**"That's it." I started to get up, but Grover pulled me back to my seat.**

**"You're already on probation," he reminded me. "You know who'll get blamed if anything happens."**

**Looking back on it, I wish I'd decked Nancy Bobofit right then and there. In-school suspension would've been nothing compared to the mess I was about to get myself into.**

"Oh, no," said Poseidon.

**Mr. Brunner led the museum tour. He rode up front in his wheelchair, guiding us through the big echoey galleries, past marble statues and glass cases full of really old black-and-orange pottery. It blew my mind that this stuff had survived for two thousand, three thousand years.**

"I don't get why people pay a bunch of money for stuff that looks horrible," Travis said. "Even Connor can make a better vase!"

**He gathered us around a thirteen-foot-tall stone column with a big sphinx on the top, and started telling us how it was a grave marker, a ****_stele_****, for a girl about our age. He told us about the carvings on the sides. I was trying to listen to what he had to say, because it was kind of interesting, but everybody around me was talking, and every time I told them to shut up, the other teacher chaperone, Mrs. Dodds, would give me the evil eye.**

"The evil eye!" Travis yelled, "OH NO!"  
"IT'S EVIL! AND AN EYE!" Connor added. "IT'S PART OF THE DARK SIDE!"

Fred and George grinned.

**Mrs. Dodds was this little math teacher from Georgia who always wore a black leather jacket, even though she was fifty years old. She looked mean enough to ride a Harley right into your locker. She had come to Yancy halfway through the year, when our last math teacher had a nervous breakdown. From her first day, Mrs. Dodds loved Nancy Bobofit and figured I was devil spawn.**

"Devil? Nah, that's Nico," said Thalia and Nico grumbled, punching her.

**She would point her crooked finger at me and say, "Now, honey," real sweet, and I knew I was going to get after-school detention for a month.**

"Horrid woman," Hermione scowled.  
"Like Umbridge?" Harry muttered.

**One time, after she'd made me erase answers out of old math workbooks until midnight, I told Grover I didn't think Mrs. Dodds was human. He looked at me, real serious, and said, "You're absolutely right."**

**"Mysterious," said Connor, "and emo. Like Nico." **

**Mr. Brunner kept talking about Greek funeral art. Finally, Nancy Bobofit snickered something about the naked guy on the _stele_, and I turned around and said, "Will you shut up?"**

"Nice," said Fred.

**It came out louder than I meant it to. The whole group laughed. Mr. Brunner stopped his story.**

"Chiron stopping his boring lecture? Not cool," grinned Apollo.

"I know," agreed Hermes.

**"Mr. Jackson," he said, "did you have a comment?"**

**My face was totally red. I said, "No, sir."**

"Aw, is Prissy embarrassed to be told off by his favorite teacher?" Clarisse asked. Percy rolled his eyes.  
"Shut up Boar Butt," retorted Percy.

**Mr. Brunner pointed to one of the pictures on the _stele_. "Perhaps you'll tell us what this picture represents?**

**I looked at the carving, and felt a flush of relief, because I actually recognized it. "That's Kronos eating his kids, right?"**

"WHAT?!" demanded Hermione.  
"Yeah, while bolt-boy was loved and cherished by mother Rhea," said Poseidon, "the rest of us were eaten whole."

**"Yes," Mr. Brunner said, obviously not satisfied. "And he did this because ..."**

**"Well..." I racked my brain to remember. "Kronos was the king god, and—"**

"KING GOD?" roared Zeus. "I OUGHT TO PERISH YOU-"

"RELAX!" yelled Percy. "I WAS ELEVEN!"

**"God?" Mr. Brunner asked.**

**"Titan," I corrected myself. "And ... he didn't trust his kids, who were the gods. So, um, Kronos ate them, right? But his wife hid baby Zeus, and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead. And later, when Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and sisters**—**"**

"Gross," Lavender squealed, her voice green.

**"Eeew!" said one of the girls behind me.**

**"—and so there was this big fight between the gods and the Titans," I continued, "and the gods won."**

"That's better," Zeus said.

**Some snickers from the group. Behind me, Nancy Bobofit mumbled to a friend, "Like we're going to use this in real life. Like it's going to say on our job applications, 'Please explain why Kronos ate his kids.'"**

"If it was," said Travis. "That'd be EPIC!"

**"And why, Mr. Jackson," Brunner said, "to paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question, does this matter in real life?"**

"'Cause it'll help keep us alive!" grinned Thalia.

**"Busted," Grover muttered.**

**"Shut up," Nancy hissed, her face even brighter red than her hair.**

"Yeah, she's a Weasley," nodded Draco, smirking.  
"Shut up," Harry advised him as he held Ron back.

**At least Nancy got packed, too. Mr. Brunner was the only one who ever caught her saying anything wrong. He had radar ears.**

"Like Dumbledore!" shouted Lee Jordan.

**I thought about his question, and shrugged. "I don't know, sir."**

"His typical answer," sighed Rachel.

**"I see." Mr. Brunner looked disappointed. "Well, half credit, Mr. Jackson. Zeus did indeed feed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine, which made him disgorge his other five children, who, of course, being immortal gods, had been living and growing up completely undigested in the Titan's stomach.**

"It's worse than my childhood," Percy and Harry said together.

"WAIT, WHAT?!" Annabeth and Hermione screamed together.

"READ!" Percy yelped.

**The gods defeated their father, sliced him to pieces with his own scythe, and scattered his remains in Tartarus, the darkest part of the Underworld. On that happy note, it's time for lunch. Mrs. Dodds, would you lead us back outside?"**

"That's SO Chiron," said Thalia.

**The class drifted off, the girls holding their stomachs, the guys pushing each other around and acting like doofuses.**

"As usual," Thalia smirked.  
Artemis nodded. "I agree," she said. "Like my idiot twin Apollo."

**Grover and I were about to follow when Mr. Brunner said, "Mr. Jackson."**

**I knew that was coming.**

**I told Grover to keep going. Then I turned toward Mr. Brunner. "Sir?"**

**Mr. Brunner had this look that wouldn't let you go intense brown eyes that could've been a thousand years old and had seen everything.**

"DUMBLEDORE!" howled the twins and Lee.

**"You must learn the answer to my question," Mr. Brunner told me.**

**"About the Titans?"**

**"About real life. And how your studies apply to it."**

**"Oh."**

"Oh. Such a wise answer," said Annabeth.

**"What you learn from me," he said, "is vitally important. I expect you to treat it as such. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson."**

**I wanted to get angry, this guy pushed me so hard.**

"I'm sorry, Percy," said Chiron. "But it was for the best."  
Percy nodded. "I know, Chiron."

Harry sighed. "I've been down through that road." Dumbledore apologized as well.

**I mean, sure, it was kind of cool on tournament days, when he dressed up in a suit of Roman armor and shouted: "What ho!'" and challenged us, sword-point against chalk, to run to the board and name every Greek and Roman person who had ever lived, and their mother, and what god they worshiped. But Mr. Brunner expected me to be as good as everybody else, despite the fact that I have dyslexia and attention deficit disorder**

"That's nice," Luna said.  
"Yeah, it is," Percy nodded.

**and I had never made above a C- in my life.**

"WHAT?" Annabeth demanded. "Seaweed Brain!"  
"Not my fault!" Percy replied defensively.

**No he didn't expect me to be as good; he expected me to be better. And I just couldn't learn all those names and facts, much less spell them correctly.**

"Neither can we," the Stolls said, serious suddenly.

**I mumbled something about trying harder, while Mr. Brunner took one long sad look at the _stele_, like he'd been at this girl's funeral.**

"I did," Chiron nodded. "Poor girl."

**He told me to go outside and eat my lunch.**

**The class gathered on the front steps of the museum, where we could watch the foot traffic along Fifth Avenue.**

**Overhead, a huge storm was brewing, with clouds blacker than I'd ever seen over the city. I figured maybe it was global warming or something, because the weather all across New York State had been weird since Christmas. We'd had massive snow storms, flooding, wildfires from lightning strikes. I wouldn't have been surprised if this was a hurricane blowing in.**

"Zeus and Poseidon!" exclaimed Hera. "Why?"  
**Nobody else seemed to notice. Some of the guys were pelting pigeons with lunch tables crackers. Nancy Bobofit was trying to pickpocket something from a lady's purse, and, of course, Mrs. Dodds wasn't seeing a thing. Grover and I sat on the edge of the fountain, away from the others. We thought that maybe if we did that, everybody wouldn't know we were from that school the school for loser freaks who couldn't make it elsewhere.**

**"Detention?" Grover asked.**

**"Nah," I said. "Not from Brunner. I just wish he'd lay off me sometimes. I mean I'm not a genius."**

"Obviously," Thalia and Nico said together.

"You're one to talk, Death Breath and Sparkles," Percy shot back.  
"DON'T CALL ME SPARKLES!" yelled Thalia. "I HATE TWILIGHT!"  
"WHAT?" Aphrodite shouted. "HOW COULD YOU NOT LIKE TWILIGHT?"

"Read, before she starts ranting," Artemis said urgently.

**Grover didn't say anything for a while. Then, when I thought he was going to give me some deep philosophical comment to make me feel better, he said, "Can I have your apple?"**

"Niiice," cracked up Travis and Connor.

"Brilliant," Fred and George said at the same time.

The two pairs of siblings glanced at each other, grinning.

**I didn't have much of an appetite, so I let him take it.**

**I watched the stream of cabs going down Fifth Avenue, and thought about my mom's apartment, only a little ways uptown from where we sat. I hadn't seen her since Christmas. I wanted so bad to jump in a taxi and head home. She'd hug me and be glad to see me, but she'd be disappointed, too. She'd send me right back to Yancy, remind me that I had to try harder, even if this was my sixth school in six years and I was probably going to be kicked out again. I wouldn't be able to stand that sad look she'd give me.**

"Sally?" Poseidon's eyes sparkled. "Poor Sally."

"Mom," nodded Percy, looking down.

**Mr. Brunner parked his wheelchair at the base of the handicapped ramp. He ate celery while he read a paperback novel. A red umbrella stuck up from the back of his chair, making it look like a motorized café table.**

**I was about to unwrap my sandwich when Nancy Bobofit appeared in front of me with her ugly friends I guess she'd gotten tired of stealing from the tourists and dumped her half-eaten lunch in Grover's lap.**

"That little-" began Annabeth fiercely.  
"Annabeth," Grover said, "I like peanut butter, remember?"  
"Shut up, Goat Boy!" she replied.

**"Oops." She grinned at me with her crooked teeth. Her freckles were orange, as if somebody had spray-painted her face with liquid Cheetos.**

"Cheetos?" asked Ron. "What?"  
"A Muggle snack, Ron," explained Hermione. "The color of your hair."  
**I tried to stay cool. The school counselor had told me a million times, "Count to ten, get control of your temper."**

"Hey, Harry should try that," joked Hermione.

**But I was so mad my mind went blank. A wave roared in my ears. I don't remember touching her, but the next thing I knew, Nancy was sitting on her butt in the fountain, screaming, "Percy pushed me!"**

"He did NOT!" yelled Thalia as the demigods began shouting insults towards Nancy.

**Mrs. Dodds materialized next to us.**

**Some of the kids were whispering: "Did you see—"**

**"—the water—"**

**"—like it grabbed her—"**

"My son is learning," said Poseidon.  
"He is too dangerous," Zeus said immediately.

"You _won't _kill him," Poseidon said instantly. "Or I will make sure you will never be able to sire another child again."

"Fine," Zeus grumbled.

**I didn't know what they were talking about. All I knew was that I was in trouble again. As soon as Mrs. Dodds was sure poor little Nancy was okay, promising to get her a new shirt at the museum gift shop, etc., etc., Mrs. Dodds turned on me. There was a triumphant fire in her eyes, as if I'd done something she'd been waiting for all semester. "Now, honey "**

**"I know," I grumbled. "A month erasing workbooks."**

"NO!" wailed Travis. "NEVER GUESS YOUR PUNISHMENT!"  
"I know, I learned that," said Percy.

**That wasn't the right thing to say.**

"No, really?" Connor asked sarcastically.

**"Come with me," Mrs. Dodds said.**

**"Wait!" Grover yelped. "It was me. I pushed her."**

"Grover? Acting brave? Miracle!" exclaimed Ares rudely.  
Grover frowned.

**I stared at him, stunned. I couldn't believe he was trying to cover for me. Mrs. Dodds scared Grover to death. She glared at him so hard his whiskery chin trembled.**

**"I don't think so, Mr. Underwood," she said.**

**"But—"**

**"You—will—stay—here."**

**Grover looked at me desperately.**

**"It's okay, man," I told him. "Thanks for trying."**

**"Honey," Mrs. Dodds barked at me. "Now."**

**Nancy Bobofit smirked. I gave her my deluxe I'll-kill-you-later stare.**

"Dude, NEVER be on the end of that glare," said Connor, shuddering. "He does that to monsters-scares the evil out of them."

**Then I turned to face Mrs. Dodds, but she wasn't there. She was standing at the museum entrance, way at the top of the steps, gesturing impatiently at me to come on. How'd she get there so fast?**

"She's a MONSTER!" shouted Poseidon. "Who is she?"

**I have moments like that a lot, when my brain falls asleep or something, and the next thing I know I've missed something, as if a puzzle piece fell out of the universe and left me staring at the blank place behind it. The school counselor told me this was part of the ADHD, my brain misinterpreting things.**

"It's the Mist," guessed Rachel.  
Tyson surprised everyone-since he hadn't spoken in so long-by saying, "Misty!"  
**I wasn't so sure. I went after Mrs. Dodds.**

**Halfway up the steps, I glanced back at Grover. He was looking pale, cutting his eyes between me and Mr. Brunner, like he wanted Mr. Brunner to notice what was going on, but Mr. Brunner was absorbed in his novel.**

"CHIRON!" yelled Poseidon, Annabeth and-surprisingly-Aphrodite.  
"What?" Aphrodite asked when everyone looked at her. "If he dies, I can't mess with his love life."  
Everyone rolled their eyes.

**I looked back up. Mrs. Dodds had disappeared again. She was now inside the building, at the end of the entrance hall.**

**Okay, I thought. She's going to make me buy a new shirt for Nancy at the gift shop.**

"I wish," Percy mumbled.

**But apparently that wasn't the plan.**

"Oh no," Poseidon said, gripping his trident.

**I followed her deeper into the museum. When I finally caught up to her, we were back in the Greek and Roman section. Except for us, the gallery was empty.**

"I have a bad feeling about this," Neville said.

**Mrs. Dodds stood with her arms crossed in front of a big marble frieze of the Greek gods. She was making this weird noise in her throat, like growling. Even without the noise, I would've been nervous. It's weird being alone with a teacher, especially Mrs. Dodds. Something about the way she looked at the frieze, as if she wanted to pulverize it...**

"Definitely a monster," said Nico.

**"You've been giving us problems, honey," she said.**

**I did the safe thing. I said, "Yes, ma'am."**

**She tugged on the cuffs of her leather jacket. "Did you really think you would get away with it?"**

"Uh, I think he did," Nico said.

"You're talking to a book," Thalia said.

**The look in her eyes was beyond mad. It was evil. She's a teacher, I thought nervously. It's not like she's going to hurt me.**

"Teachers hurt you," Travis said grimly.

"Yeah," Harry nodded, holding up his hand.  
"I-Must-Not-Tell-Lies," read Nico.

Travis frowned. "A teacher slapped me," he said.

"WHAT?" Hermes yelled. "WHY?"  
"I played a prank on her involving a grizzly bear and glue," Travis replied.

"Oh," Hermes said, still angry. "Where is this teacher?"  
"Dunno," Travis muttered.

**I said, "I'll I'll try harder, ma'am."**

**Thunder shook the building.**

**"We are not fools, Percy Jackson," Mrs. Dodds said. "It was only a matter of time before we found you out. Confess, and you will suffer less pain."**

**I didn't know what she was talking about. All I could think of was that the teachers must've found the illegal stash of candy I'd been selling out of my dorm room.**

"I'm so proud," said Hermes, wiping away proud tears.

**Or maybe they'd realized I got my essay on Tom Sawyer from the Internet without ever reading the book and now they were going to take away my grade. Or worse, they were going to make me read the book.**

"Classic," said Fred and George.  
"I know, right?" said the Stolls.

"Like I'd read," smirked Percy.

**"Well?" she demanded.**

**"Ma'am, I don't..."**

**"Your time is up," she hissed.**

**Then the weirdest thing happened. Her eyes began to glow like barbecue coals. Her fingers stretched, turning into talons. Her jacket melted into large, leathery wings. She wasn't human. She was a shriveled hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice me to ribbons.**

"WHAT?!" roared Poseidon. He whirled on Hades. "YOU SENT A FURY AFTER MY TWELVE YEAR OLD SON?!"

Hades shrank back. "I was angry," he said.

"SO?!" Poseidon yelled. He lunged at Hades and after a brief struggle, Hades was on the ground.

"Read," Athena sighed.

**Then things got even stranger.**

**Mr. Brunner, who'd been out in front of the museum a minute before, wheeled his chair into the doorway of the gallery, holding a pen in his hand.**

**"What ho, Percy!" he shouted, and tossed the pen through the air.**

"Thank gods," Annabeth breathed.  
Poseidon nodded, "Thank you, Chiron."  
Chiron nodded.

**Mrs. Dodds lunged at me.**

**With a yelp, I dodged and felt talons slash the air next to my ear. I snatched the ballpoint pen out of the air, but when it hit my hand, it wasn't a pen anymore. It was a sword Mr. Brunner's bronze sword, which he always used on tournament day.**

"Your pen is a sword? Brilliant!" Fred said.

"Yeah," agreed Travis. The Stolls and twins had become friends.

**Mrs. Dodds spun toward me with a murderous look in her eyes. My knees were jelly. My hands were shaking so bad I almost dropped the sword.**

**She snarled, "Die, honey!"**

"Stop with the 'honey' business!" Apollo shouted. Hermes nodded.

**And she flew straight at me.**

**Absolute terror ran through my body. I did the only thing that came naturally: I swung the sword. The metal blade hit her shoulder and passed clean through her body as if she were made of water. _Hissss!_ Mrs. Dodds was a sand castle in a power fan.**

"Power fan?" questioned Ginny.

"Muggle thing," explained Hermione, sighing.

**She exploded into yellow powder, vaporized on the spot, leaving nothing but the smell of sulfur and a dying screech and a chill of evil in the air, as if those two glowing red eyes were still watching me.**

"That's..." Ron searched for he right word. "Unnerving? Disturbing?"  
"Yeah," agreed Harry. "Even I didn't have Death Eaters coming after me!"

**I was alone.**

**There was a ballpoint pen in my hand.**

"The Mist or your disturbed mind?" asked Nico.

**Mr. Brunner wasn't there. Nobody was there but me. My hands were still trembling. My lunch must've been contaminated with magic mushrooms or something.**

**"Magic mushrooms?" Thalia questioned.  
"I was twelve!" Percy huffed. "And a Fury almost killed me!" **

**Had I imagined the whole thing?**

**I went back outside. It had started to rain. Grover was sitting by the fountain, a museum map tented over his head. Nancy Bobofit was still standing there, soaked from her swim in the fountain, grumbling to her ugly friends. When she saw me, she said, "I hope Mrs. Kerr whipped your butt."**

"Who?" asked Hermione.  
"The Mist!" cursed Annabeth. "They don't remember Mrs. Dodds at all. Only some Mrs. Kerr!"

**I said, "Who?"**

"Now they'll think you're more insane than usual," Rachel said, groaning.

"Hey!" Percy frowned.

**"Our teacher. Duh!"**

**I blinked. We had no teacher named Mrs. Kerr. I asked Nancy what she was talking about. She just rolled her eyes and turned away. I asked Grover where Mrs. Dodds was.**

**He said, "Who?" But he paused first, and he wouldn't look at me, so I thought he was messing with me.**

"Boys, we need to teach Grover how to lie," said Hermes to the Stolls.

Artemis rolled her eyes.

**"Not funny, man," I told him. "This is serious."**

**Thunder boomed overhead. I saw Mr. Brunner sitting under his red umbrella, reading his book, as if he'd never moved. I went over to him. He looked up, a little distracted. "Ah, that would be my pen. Please bring your own writing utensil in the future, Mr. Jackson."**

"Man," whispered Travis. "He's awesome. Chiron, can you teach Grover how to lie?"  
"I'm afraid I cannot," Chiron replied. "I'm too busy arranging races and games."  
"Make me proud," Hermes told the Stolls, who saluted him.

Katie smacked Travis, Lou Ellen smacked Connor and Demeter smacked Hermes.

"OW!" the guys who were smacked yelled.

**I handed Mr. Brunner his pen. I hadn't even realized I was still holding it.**

**"Sir," I said, "where's Mrs. Dodds?"**

**He stared at me blankly. "Who?"**

"GO, CHIRON!" yelled Hermes and Apollo.  
"Nice work, Chiron," Poseidon agreed. Maybe his son wouldn't be haunted now...so long that satyr didn't try and lie again.

**"The other chaperone. Mrs. Dodds. The pre-algebra teacher."**

**He frowned and sat forward, looking mildly concerned. "Percy, there is no Mrs. Dodds on this trip. As far as I know, there has never been a Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy. Are you feeling all right?"**

"He never feels alright," Travis said earnestly.  
"Yeah," nodded Connor. "He's always crazy and can go lunatic on monsters."  
"He should see a psychiatrist," added Travis.

Everyone snickered at Percy, whose face was redder than Apollo's sacred cows.


	3. Knitting Socks of Death is fun!

**This is my first fanfiction, so PLEASE REVIEW! I'll give you a virtual Camp Half-Blood business card if you do! **

* * *

**CHAPTER TWO-THREE OLD LADIES KNIT THE SOCKS OF DEATH **

"What's with these chapters, Perce?" asked Jake Mason, head of Hephaestus.  
"Uh, I have no idea," Percy admitted.

**I was used to the occasional weird experience, but usually they were over quickly. This twenty-four/seven hallucination was more than I could handle. For the rest of the school year, the entire campus seemed to be playing some kind of trick on me. The students acted as if they were completely and totally convinced that Mrs. Kerr, a perky blond woman whom I'd never seen in my life until she got on our bus at the end of the field trip, had been our pre-algebra teacher since Christmas.**

"It's the Mist, Kelp Head," said Thalia.  
"Give me a break, Pinecone Face," retorted Percy.  
Thalia notched an arrow to her bow in less than three seconds, at his face, but in the same amount of time, Percy had out his pen.  
"A pen?" laughed Draco.  
Percy glanced slightly at him, and then uncapped the pen. The wizards and witches gasped as the bronze sword appeared.

Draco sat back down slowly, and Percy smirked.  
Thalia let her arrow fly, but Percy was ready, slicing the arrow in half.

"Yeah, a fight!" Ares grinned. Thalia glowered at Percy. "My arrow!" she exclaimed.  
"Oops, sorry," Percy shrugged.

**Every so often I would spring a Mrs. Dodds reference on somebody, just to see if I could trip them up, but they would stare at me like I was psycho. It got so I almost believed them Mrs. Dodds had never existed.**

"Okay, a) you ARE psycho," began Nico, grinning evilly.

"And b), you should learn to GO WITH IT!" Thalia finished.

**Almost.**

**But Grover couldn't fool me. When I mentioned the name Dodds to him, he would hesitate, and then claim she didn't exist. But I knew he was lying.**

"Stupid Gerald," said Dionysus.  
"It's Grover," Grover mumbled, hesitantly, "and I know, I stink at lying."

**Something was going on. Something had happened at the museum.**

"No shi-I mean, Styx, Sherlock," said Nico, catching Annabeth's glare.

"No need to rub it in, Nico," Percy grumbled.

**I didn't have much time to think about it during the days, but at night, visions of Mrs. Dodds with talons and leathery wings would wake me up in a cold sweat.**

"Yeah," Harry nodded. "That's happened to me before."

**The freak weather continued, which didn't help my mood. One night, a thunderstorm blew out the windows in my dorm room. A few days later, the biggest tornado ever spotted in the Hudson Valley touched down only fifty miles from Yancy Academy. **

"Zeus or Poseidon?" asked Neville.  
"Zeus," spat Poseidon, glaring at his brother. "HE wanted to kill Percy, but I managed to stop it."

**One of the current events we studied in social studies class was the unusual number of small planes that had gone down in sudden squalls in the Atlantic that year.**

"I like that word," said Travis. "Squalls."  
"Squalls," Connor rolled the word around in his mouth. "Squualllss."  
"Stupid," Katie replied. "Stuuupppiiid." She imitated him.

**I started feeling cranky and irritable most of the time. My grades slipped from Ds to Fs.**

"No appreciation-" Athena began nastily again.  
"I GET IT!" Percy sighed.

**I got into more fights with Nancy Bobofit and her friends. I was sent out into the hallway in almost every class. Finally, when our English teacher, Mr. Nicoll, asked me for the millionth time why I was too lazy to study for spelling tests, I snapped. I called him an old sot. **

Everyone burst out laughing.

"Old...sot!" Fred and George wiped tears of mirth out of their eyes.

"Wow," said Hermione, wide-eyed but giggling. "You said that to a TEACHER?"  
"So?" asked Percy.

**I wasn't even sure what it meant, but it sounded good.**

"That's what makes it even more hilarious," Thalia grinned. "Percy being Percy."

"It means a drunk person," Annabeth informed Percy.  
"Ah," Percy nodded pleasantly. "Like Mr. D?"  
Silence.

Everyone slowly turned to Dionysus, who was coincidentally, holding a beer can. Zeus raised an eyebrow.  
"Oops, my bad," Dionysus said lightly. He snapped his fingers and it turned into a Diet Coke can.

Everyone snickered and the reading continued.

**The headmaster sent my mom a letter the following week, making it official: I would not be invited back next year to Yancy Academy.**

"That's too bad," Luna said sympathetically.

"No more Grover and Mr. Brunner," said Percy sadly.

**Fine, I told myself. Just fine.**

**I was homesick.**

**I wanted to be with my mom in our little apartment on the Upper East Side, even if I had to go to public school and put up with my obnoxious stepfather and his stupid poker parties. And yet... there were things I'd miss at Yancy. The view of the woods outside my dorm window, the Hudson River in the distance, the smell of pine trees. I'd miss Grover, who'd been a good friend, even if he was a little strange. I worried how he'd survive next year without me.**

"Thanks," Grover said, his ears pink.  
"No prob," said Percy.

**I'd miss Latin class, too Mr. Brunner's crazy tournament days and his faith that I could do well.**

Percy sighed. "Yeah, well, Mr. Brunner returned," he said. "And in a different form."

**As exam week got closer, Latin was the only test I studied for. I hadn't forgotten what Mr. Brunner had told me about this subject being life-and-death for me. I wasn't sure why, but I'd started to believe him.**

"That's good, Percy," said Chiron. "It's important to know Latin and Greek Mythology so you know how to kill monsters."

**The evening before my final, I got so frustrated I threw the Cambridge Guide to Greek Mythology across my dorm room. **

"You threw a book across the room?!" Athena shouted.  
"YOU try dealing with dyslexia!" Percy retorted.

**Words had started swimming off the page, circling my head, the letters doing one-eighties as if they were riding skateboards. There was no way I was going to remember the difference between Chiron and Charon, or Polydictes and Polydeuces. And conjugating those Latin verbs? Forget it.**

"I feel bad for you," Luna said in her usual dreamy fashion.  
"Thanks, Luna," Percy said, smiling.

**I paced the room, feeling like ants were crawling around inside my shirt. I remembered Mr. Brunner's serious expression, his thousand-year-old eyes. ****_I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson_****. I took a deep breath. I picked up the mythology book. I'd never asked a teacher for help before. Maybe if I talked to Mr. Brunner, he could give me some pointers. At least I could apologize for the big fat F I was about to score on his exam. I didn't want to leave Yancy Academy with him thinking I hadn't tried.**

"Aw, Prissy wants to please his favorite teacher?" Clarisse asked.

Percy rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I do," he admitted.

**I walked downstairs to the faculty offices. Most of them were dark and empty, but Mr. Brunner's door was ajar, light from his window stretching across the hallway floor. I was three steps from the door handle when I heard voices inside the office. Mr. Brunner asked a question. A voice that was definitely Grover's said,**

**"... worried about Percy, sir."**

**I froze.**

**I'm not usually an eavesdropper, but I dare you to try not listening if you hear your best friend talking about you to an adult.**

"Your boy is making me so proud," Hermes told Poseidon, "eavesdrop away, young Percy!"

**I inched closer.**

**"... alone this summer," Grover was saying. "I mean, a Kindly One in the school! Now that we know for sure, and they know too—"**

"Now he knows the truth! You just HAD to start talking, Garin," said Dionysus, shaking his head.

Grover turned red. "I didn't know he was eavesdropping!"

**"We would only make matters worse by rushing him," Mr. Brunner said. "We need the boy to mature more."**

**"But he may not have time. The summer solstice dead-line—"**

**"Will have to be resolved without him, Grover. Let him enjoy his ignorance while he still can."**

"Ignorance," winced Annabeth. "Harsh, Chiron."  
"I didn't mean it like that, Percy," Chiron sighed.

"I know," Percy grumbled.

**"Sir, he saw her..."**

**"His imagination," Mr. Brunner insisted. "The Mist over the students and staff will be enough to convince him of that."**

**"Sir, I ... I can't fail in my duties again." Grover's voice was choked with emotion. "You know what that would mean."**

"What would that mean?" asked Neville. "And what duties did you fail?"  
"Later," Thalia, Annabeth and Grover mumbled.

**"You haven't failed, Grover," Mr. Brunner said kindly. "I should have seen her for what she was. Now let's just worry about keeping Percy alive until next fall—"**

"That was a shock," admitted Percy.

"No, really?" said Thalia sarcastically.

**The mythology book dropped out of my hand and hit the floor with a thud.**

"NO! NEVER GIVE AWAY YOUR EAVESDROPPING POSITION!" Hermes yelled.

**Mr. Brunner went silent.**

**My heart hammering, I picked up the book and backed down the hall. A shadow slid across the lighted glass of Brunner's office door, the shadow of something much taller than my wheelchair-bound teacher, holding something that looked suspiciously like an archer's bow.**

"Don't shoot my son," Poseidon warned.

**I opened the nearest door and slipped inside.**

**A few seconds later I heard a slow _clop-clop-clop_, like muffled wood blocks, then a sound like an animal snuffling right outside my door. A large, dark shape paused in front of the glass, and then moved on. A bead of sweat trickled down my neck.**

"A centaur!" Luna exclaimed.  
"Yeah, a centaur," nodded Annabeth, pointing at Chiron, who waved.  
"A pony!" yelled Travis.  
"A magical one!" Connor added.

**Somewhere in the hallway, Mr. Brunner spoke. "Nothing," he murmured. "My nerves haven't been right since the winter solstice."**

**"Mine neither," Grover said. "But I could have sworn ..."**

**"Go back to the dorm," Mr. Brunner told him. "You've got a long day of exams tomorrow."**

**"Don't remind me."**

"Nice, Chiron," snorted Apollo. "You go on and on about death and stuff, then you remind Grover about exams."

**The lights went out in Mr. Brunner's office. I waited in the dark for what seemed like forever. Finally, I slipped out into the hallway and made my way back up to the dorm. Grover was lying on his bed, studying his Latin exam notes like he'd been there all night.**

**"Hey," he said, bleary-eyed. "You going to be ready for this test?"**

"Doubt he will," said Annabeth.

"Thanks, you're such a supportive g-I mean, friend," said Percy. He didn't want to give away what might happen in the books by telling everyone Annabeth was his girlfriend-especially when he was fourteen, when Rachel came into the story.

**I didn't answer.**

**"You look awful." He frowned. "Is everything okay?"**

**"Just... tired."**

**I turned so he couldn't read my expression, and started getting ready for bed.**

"No studying, Percy?" asked Chiron.  
"Oops, sorry," Percy replied sarcastically. "I was too busy worrying about Kindly Ones and my death."

**I didn't understand what I'd heard downstairs. I wanted to believe I'd imagined the whole thing. But one thing was clear: Grover and Mr. Brunner were talking about me behind my back. They thought I was in some kind of danger.**

**The next afternoon, as I was leaving the three-hour Latin exam, my eyes swimming with all the Greek and Roman names I'd misspelled, Mr. Brunner called me back inside. For a moment, I was worried he'd found out about my eavesdropping the night before, but that didn't seem to be the problem.**

**"Percy," he said. "Don't be discouraged about leaving Yancy. It's ... it's for the best."**

**His tone was kind, but the words still embarrassed me. Even though he was speaking quietly, the other kids finishing the test could hear. Nancy Bobofit smirked at me and made sarcastic little kissing motions with her lips.**

"I want to run that girl through with my dagger," Annabeth growled.

"We all do," said Rachel.

**I mumbled, "Okay, sir."**

**"I mean ..." Mr. Brunner wheeled his chair back and forth, like he wasn't sure what to say. "This isn't the right place for you. It was only a matter of time."**

**My eyes stung.**

"Nice work, Chiron!" Poseidon frowned.  
"I didn't mean it like that," Chiron sighed once again. Maybe he should just stop acting all Yoda/Merlin-ish and just say, "You were a wonderful student and I will see you soon."

**Here was my favorite teacher, in front of the class, telling me I couldn't handle it. After saying he believed in me all year, now he was telling me I was destined to get kicked out.**

**"Right," I said, trembling.**

**"No, no," Mr. Brunner said. "Oh, confound it all. What I'm trying to say ... you're not normal, Percy. That's nothing to be—"**

"I know I'm not normal," Percy grumbled. "Everyone made that clear when I couldn't spell 'because' in second grade."  
Everyone shot him sympathetic glances.

**"Thanks," I blurted. "Thanks a lot, sir, for reminding me."**

**"Percy—"**

**But I was already gone.**

"You really managed to bond with him, didn't you?" Hera sighed.

**On the last day of the term, I shoved my clothes into my suitcase.**

**The other guys were joking around, talking about their vacation plans. One of them was going on a hiking trip to Switzerland. Another was cruising the Caribbean for a month. They were juvenile delinquents, like me, but they were rich juvenile delinquents. Their daddies were executives, or ambassadors, or celebrities. I was a nobody, from a family of nobodies.**

"Excuse me?" said every demigod and Olympian, even Zeus.

"I didn't know!" Percy threw his hands up in surrender. "Please don't hurt me!"

**They asked me what I'd be doing this summer and I told them I was going back to the city. What I didn't tell them was that I'd have to get a summer job walking dogs or selling magazine subscriptions, and spend my free time worrying about where I'd go to school in the fall.**

**"Oh," one of the guys said. "That's cool."**

**They went back to their conversation as if I'd never existed.**

"Well THAT'S rude," Hermione sniffed.

"I now cherish that moment," Percy said. "Now, I'm zeroed in on and attacked."  
"Join the club," Harry added.

**The only person I dreaded saying good-bye to was Grover, but as it turned out, I didn't have to. He'd booked a ticket to Manhattan on the same Greyhound as I had, so there we were, together again, heading into the city. During the whole bus ride, Grover kept glancing nervously down the aisle, watching the other passengers. It occurred to me that he'd always acted nervous and fidgety when we left Yancy, as if he expected something bad to happen.**

**Before, I'd always assumed he was worried about getting teased. But there was nobody to tease him on the Greyhound. Finally I couldn't stand it anymore.**

**I said, "Looking for Kindly Ones?"**

"That scared the Styx out of me!" Grover admitted.

Suddenly, there was a flash of light near the double doors of the Great Hall and a beautiful woman with long, brown hair tied back, warm eyes and a kind smile appeared. She wore a sweater, jeans and worn sneakers, and looked disoriented.  
"Where am I?" she asked.  
Poseidon inhaled. "Sally?" he asked.

Percy said, at the same time, "MOM?!"  
Sally Jackson smiled brightly. "Hello," she said. "Percy!"  
"What...?" Percy glanced sideways at Poseidon, who looked just as miffed.

"Mrs. Jackson!" Thalia, Nico, the Stolls, Annabeth, Grover and Rachel tripped off the benches and ran towards her, hugging her.

"Who are you?" Zeus boomed.  
"Sally Jackson," said Sally. "Percy's mother."  
"Best! Mom! EVER!" added Connor.  
Sally suddenly saw Poseidon.  
"Poseidon!" she smoothed down her hair, smiling nervously. "Hi. Hello."  
Aphrodite squealed. "AW!"  
Athena smiled at Sally. "Why don't you sit here?" An extra chair appeared next to Poseidon. Sally sat in it, smiling at a bewildered Percy and his excited friends.

**Grover nearly jumped out of his seat. "Wha-what do you mean?"**

**I confessed about eavesdropping on him and Mr. Brunner the night before the exam.**

**Grover's eye twitched. "How much did you hear?"**

**"Oh ... not much. What's the summer solstice dead-line?"**

**He winced. "Look, Percy ... I was just worried for you, see? I mean, hallucinating about demon math teachers..."**

"Wait, what's going on?" asked Sally.

"We're reading about Percy's life," explained Annabeth. "With Hogwarts."  
Sally's eyes went wide with wonder.

"A Muggle can see Hogwarts?" asked Draco, sneering.

"She can see through the Mist!" Percy replied.  
"Is she a witch?" sniffed Pansy.

"Are you an angel from above?" Percy retorted. "Clearly not. Now shut up and listen to the story of my miserable life!"

**"Grover—"**

**"And I was telling Mr. Brunner that maybe you were overstressed or something, because there was no such person as Mrs. Dodds, and ..."**

**"Grover, you're a really, really bad liar."**

"We all achieved to know that from the last chapter," grumbled Artemis.

**His ears turned pink.**

"Like Ronnie-kin's!" Fred and George grinned.

**From his shirt pocket, he fished out a grubby business card. "Just take this, okay? In case you need me this summer.**

**The card was in fancy script, which was murder on my dyslexic eyes, but I finally made out something like:**

**_Grover Underwood_**

**_Keeper_**

**_Half-Blood Hill_**

**_Long Island, New York_**

**_(800) 009-0009_**

**"What's Half—"**

**"Don't say it aloud!" he yelped. "That's my, um ... summer address."**

**My heart sank. Grover had a summer home. I'd never considered that his family might be as rich as the others at Yancy.**

"Not rich," Grover corrected. "Far from it."

**"Okay," I said glumly. "So, like, if I want to come visit your mansion."**

**He nodded. "Or...or if you need me."**

**"Why would I need you?"**

"I'm sorry, I didn't-" Percy began.  
"I know," Grover smiled. "He meant it as a question, like, 'why would I need to reach you?'"

**It came out harsher than I meant it to.**

**Grover blushed right down to his Adam's apple. "Look, Percy, the truth is, I-I kind of have to protect you."**

**I stared at him.**

**All year long, I'd gotten in fights, keeping bullies away from him. I'd lost sleep worrying that he'd get beaten up next year without me. And here he was acting like he was the one who defended me.**

"Sorry," Grover muttered.  
"I know," Percy imitated his tone.

**"Grover," I said, "What exactly are you protecting me from?"**

**There was a huge grinding noise under our feet. Black smoke poured from the dashboard and the whole bus filled with a smell like rotten eggs. The driver cursed and steered the Greyhound over to the side of the highway.**

"Oh, no," said Grover.

**After a few minutes clanking around in the engine compartment, the driver announced that we'd all have to get off. Grover and I filed outside with everybody else. We were on a stretch of country road — no place you'd notice if you didn't break down there. On our side of the highway was nothing but maple trees and litter from passing cars. On the other side, across four lanes of asphalt shimmering with afternoon heat, was an old-fashioned fruit stand. The stuff on sale looked really good: heaping boxes of blood red cherries and apples, walnuts and apricots, jugs of cider in a claw-foot tub full of ice.**

"Sounds delicious," noted Travis, drooling.

"When can we eat?" Connor asked.

**There were no customers, just three old ladies sitting in rocking chairs in the shade of a maple tree, knitting the biggest pair of socks I'd ever seen.**

Poseidon gripped the arms of his throne. "Oh, Styx," he cursed.

All the demigods thought about three old ladies...giant socks...  
"NO!" they gasped together, everyone but Percy and Grover.

Hermes frowned; Percy's life thread? Or...No. Hermes shook his head, pushing the thought out of his head.

Meanwhile, Sally was pale. "The Fates?" she whispered to the gods. They blinked, surprised that a mortal knew that.

"How...?" Athena asked.  
"I studied Greek Mythology after I had Percy," Sally explained. Athena raised her eyebrows, impressed.

**I mean these socks were the size of sweaters, but they were clearly socks. The lady on the right knitted one of them. The lady on the left knitted the other. The lady in the middle held an enormous basket of electric-blue yarn. All three women looked ancient, with pale faces wrinkled like fruit leather, silver hair tied back in white bandannas, bony arms sticking out of bleached cotton dresses.**

**The weirdest thing was, they seemed to be looking right at me.**

"Oh, Styx, oh Styx, oh Styx," Annabeth chanted.

"Relax," Percy said. "I'm right here."

**I looked over at Grover to say something about this and saw that the blood had drained from his face. His nose was twitching.**

**"Grover?" I said. "Hey, man—"**

**"Tell me they're not looking at you. They are, aren't they?"**

**"Yeah. Weird, huh? You think those socks would fit me?"**

"Not funny, Percy," Grover shivered.

**"Not funny, Percy. Not funny at all."**

**The old lady in the middle took out a huge pair of scissors gold and silver, long-bladed, like shears. I heard Grover catch his breath.**

"HOW ARE YOU ALIVE?" Nico yelled.

"I DUNNO!" Percy shouted back.

**"We're getting on the bus," he told me. "Come on."**

**"What?" I said. "It's a thousand degrees in there."**

**"Come on!'" He pried open the door and climbed inside, but I stayed back.**

**Across the road, the old ladies were still watching me. The middle one cut the yarn, and I swear I could hear that snip across four lanes of traffic. Her two friends balled up the electric-blue socks, leaving me wondering who they could possibly be for — Sasquatch or Godzilla.**

And with that, Poseidon and the demigods all yelled at Percy, "HOW ARE YOU ALIVE?!" And then Connor added, "Sasquatch?"  
"Godzilla?" Travis added.

"I HAVE NO IDEA!" Percy yelled back. "And yes, Stolls. Sasquatch or Godzilla."

**At the rear of the bus, the driver wrenched a big chunk of smoking metal out of the engine compartment. The bus shuddered, and the engine roared back to life.**

**The passengers cheered.**

**"Darn right!" yelled the driver. He slapped the bus with his hat. "Everybody back on board!"**

**Once we got going, I started feeling feverish, as if I'd caught the flu. Grover didn't look much better. He was shivering and his teeth were chattering.**

**"Grover?"**

**"Yeah?"**

**"What are you not telling me?"**

**He dabbed his forehead with his shirt sleeve. "Percy, what did you see back at the fruit stand?"**

**"You mean the old ladies? What is it about them, man? They're not like ... Mrs. Dodds, are they?"**

"Percy, they're WAY WORSE!" Annabeth practically screamed.  
Sally was white as a sheet.

"I'm fine, mom," Percy said, "really. See? I'm still alive."  
Sally still remained white.

"Someone get her a glass of water," suggested Percy.

**His expression was hard to read, but I got the feeling that the fruit-stand ladies were something much, much worse than Mrs. Dodds. He said, "Just tell me what you saw."**

**"The middle one took out her scissors, and she cut the yarn."**

**He closed his eyes and made a gesture with his fingers that might've been crossing himself, but it wasn't. It was something else, something almost — older.**

"Nice observations, Percy," Annabeth said, looking troubled.

**He said, "You saw her snip the cord."**

**"Yeah. So?" But even as I said it, I knew it was a big deal.**

**"This is not happening," Grover mumbled. He started chewing at his thumb. "I don't want this to be like the last time."**

"Last time?" asked Luna curiously.

"We prefer not to speak of it," Thalia said solemnly.

**"What happened last time?"**

**"Always sixth grade. They never get past sixth."**

**"Grover," I said, because he was really starting to scare me. "What are you talking about?"**

**"Let me walk you home from the bus station. Promise me."**

**This seemed like a strange request to me, but I promised he could.**

**"Is this like a superstition or something?" I asked.**

**No answer.**

**"Grover — that snipping of the yarn. Does that mean somebody is going to die?"**

"Yes," sighed Poseidon.

Sally whipped around. "Percy's going to die!" she hyperventilated.  
"Oh, no, Mrs. Jackson!" Annabeth reassured Sally. "Percy's going to be just fine."  
Sally, still breathing quickly, looked at Poseidon.

Poseidon quickly rearranged his worried expression into a reassured, firm one. Sally nodded and calmed down. The second she turned away, though, Poseidon resumed his worried face.

**He looked at me mournfully, like he was already picking the kind of flowers I'd like best on my coffin.**

"You're so emo," said Nico.

"You're one to talk," Percy replied. "Next chapter?"


	4. Grover's Pants Mishap

**Grover Unexpectedly Loses His Pants **

"Yeah! He went complete satyr-mode!" Travis grinned.

**Confession time: I ditched Grover as soon as we got to the bus terminal.**

"Percy, you should've stayed with the Grover," sighed Annabeth.

"I know," Percy muttered.

**I know, I know. It was rude. But Grover was freaking me out, looking at me like I was a dead man, muttering "Why does this always happen?" and "Why does it always have to he sixth grade?"**

"Okay, I see now why you ditched him," Annabeth blinked. "That'd creep me out, too."

**Whenever he got upset, Grover's bladder acted up, so I wasn't surprised when, as soon as we got off the bus, he made me promise to wait for him, then made a beeline for the restroom. Instead of waiting, I got my suitcase, slipped outside, and caught the first taxi uptown.**

"Sorry!" Percy said as Annabeth and Grover turned to glare at him.

**"East One-hundred-and-fourth and First," I told the driver.**

**A word about my mother, before you meet her. **

"She's AWESOME!" yelled Annabeth and Rachel together.  
"She's so kind," Thalia said.  
"She can bake some wicked blue cookies," Nico said.  
"Percy's mommy," Tyson beamed. "Helped me with stuff! Peanut butter!"  
"She's our better, second mom," said Travis, "since our first..." He trailed off.

Sally blushed down to her roots at the compliments. "Thank you," she said softly.

**Her name is Sally Jackson and she's the best person in the world, which just proves my theory that the best people have the rottenest luck. **

"Oh," Hera said.

**Her own parents died in a plane crash when she was five, and she was raised by an uncle who didn't care much about her. **

"Harry was raised by his aunt, uncle and cousin who hated magic," said Hermione.  
Meanwhile, Aphrodite, Athena, Artemis and Hera yelled at Zeus, "PLANE CRASH?!" They glared murderously at him.

**She wanted to be a novelist, so she spent high school working to save enough money for a college with a good creative-writing program. Then her uncle got cancer, and she had to quit school her senior year to take care of him. After he died, she was left with no money, no family, and no diploma.**

"Poor Mrs. Jackson," Annabeth whispered.

**The only good break she ever got was meeting my dad.**

"Aw," cooed Aphrodite. Poseidon smiled at Sally, who blushed all over again.

**I don't have any memories of him, just this sort of warm glow, maybe the barest trace of his smile. My mom doesn't like to talk about him because it makes her sad. She has no pictures. See, they weren't married. She told me he was rich and important, and their relationship was a secret. Then one day, he set sail across the Atlantic on some important journey, and he never came back.**

**Lost at sea, my mom told me. Not dead. Lost at sea.**

"Wow," said Hermes. "You lied! Nice!"  
Sally smiled uncertainly, and then glanced at Poseidon.

"She technically wasn't lying," Poseidon replied. "Lost at sea? I'm the sea god?"

**She worked odd jobs, took night classes to get her high school diploma, and raised me on her own. She never complained or got mad. Not even once. But I knew I wasn't an easy kid.**

**Finally, she married Gabe Ugliano, who was nice the first thirty seconds we knew him, then showed his true colors as a world-class jerk. When I was young, I nick named him Smelly Gabe. I'm sorry, but it's the truth. The guy reeked like moldy garlic pizza wrapped in gym shorts.**

"Oh, Gabe," Sally grimaced. "I hated him."  
"Then why'd you...oh," Athena said, and all the Olympians stared at Sally with respect, reading her mind on why she married him.

**Between the two of us, we made my mom's life pretty hard. The way Smelly Gabe treated her, the way he and I got along ... well, when I came home is a good example.**

**I walked into our little apartment, hoping my mom would be home from work. Instead, Smelly Gabe was in the living room, playing poker with his buddies. The television blared ESPN.**

"I'm sorry, honey," Sally said.  
"It's cool," Percy said quickly. "Gabe and I got along better than usual."

**Chips and beer cans were strewn all over the carpet.**

"Ew!" Aphrodite squealed.  
"Like Ares's apartment?" asked Hephaestus.

**Hardly looking up, he said around his cigar, "So, you're home."**

**"Where's my mom?"**

**"Working," he said. "You got any cash?"**

**That was it. No Welcome back. Good to see you. How has your life been the last six months?**

"Pig," said Thalia. She would've said worse, but Poseidon and Aphrodite beat her to it.

After teaching each other the right word that described Gabe, which took about five minutes of Sally squirming, the wizards looked in awe and the demigods snickered, the reading continued.

**Gabe had put on weight. He looked like a tuskless walrus in thrift-store clothes. He had about three hairs on his head, all combed over his bald scalp, as if that made him handsome or something.**

"He will NEVER be handsome," shuddered Aphrodite.

**He managed the Electronics Mega-Mart in Queens, but he stayed home most of the time. I don't know why he hadn't been fired long before. He just kept on collecting paychecks, spending the money on cigars that made me nauseous, and on beer, of course. Always beer. **

"Honestly, what is he doing with his life? Serious waste of oxygen!" Dan from Ravenclaw said, shaking his head in disgust. **(Get it, WritingIsMyPassion15?) **

**Whenever I was home, he expected me to provide his gambling funds. He called that our "guy secret." Meaning, if I told my mom, he would punch my lights out.**

Silence...  
"WHAT?!" Poseidon roared.

Sally jumped slightly. The Olympians glanced at the angry sea god and slowly edged their thrones away, in case he ended up blowing things up.

"Dad!" Percy said.

"Did he hit you?" Poseidon asked.

Percy looked at his mom, who shook her head. Poseidon turned to her, and she bit her bottom lip.

"I don't know what happened between Percy and Gabriel," she said quietly.

Percy shrugged. "He could lose his temper and throw stuff around."  
Poseidon, unsatisfied, stormed back to his throne.

**"I don't have any cash," I told him.**

**He raised a greasy eyebrow. Gabe could sniff out money like a bloodhound, which was surprising, since his own smell should've covered up everything else.**

"You're so smart, Mrs. Jackson," Annabeth admired Sally, figuring it out already.

**"You took a taxi from the bus station," he said. "Probably paid with a twenty. Got six, seven bucks in change. Somebody expects to live under this roof, he ought to carry his own weight. Am I right, Eddie?"**

"Eddie," warned Poseidon.

**Eddie, the super of the apartment building, looked at me with a twinge of sympathy. "Come on, Gabe," he said. "The kid just got here."**

"Eddie was actually nice to me sometimes," Percy recalled. "I think he knew my mom from high school or something."  
**"Am I right?" Gabe repeated.**

**Eddie scowled into his bowl of pretzels. The other two guys passed gas in harmony.**

"Shut up, Gabe," growled Thalia.

**"Fine," I said. I dug a wad of dollars out of my pocket and threw the money on the table. "I hope you lose."**

**"Your report card came, brain boy!" he shouted after me. "I wouldn't act so snooty!"**

"Brain Boy?" smirked Annabeth. "Does he KNOW Percy?!"

"Gee, thanks," Percy replied sarcastically.

**I slammed the door to my room, which really wasn't my room. During school months, it was Gabe's "study." He didn't study anything in there except old car magazines, but he loved shoving my stuff in the closet, leaving his muddy boots on my windowsill, and doing his best to make the place smell like his nasty cologne and cigars and stale beer.**

**I dropped my suitcase on the bed. Home sweet home.**

"Are you being sarcastic?" Luna asked.  
"Yeah," Percy nodded.

**Gabe's smell was almost worse than the nightmares about Mrs. Dodds, or the sound of that old fruit lady's shears snipping the yarn.**

"Very funny, Perce," snickered Travis.

**But as soon as I thought that, my legs felt weak. I remembered Grover's look of panic — how he'd made me promise I wouldn't go home without him. A sudden chill rolled through me. I felt like someone — something — was looking for me right now, maybe pounding its way up the stairs, growing long, horrible talons.**

"You're such a pessimistic," Thalia shook her head.

**Then I heard my mom's voice. "Percy?"**

**She opened the bedroom door, and my fears melted.**

"Aw," said Aphrodite.

**My mother can make me feel good just by walking into the room. Her eyes sparkle and change color in the light. Her smile is as warm as a quilt. She's got a few gray streaks mixed in with her long brown hair, but I never think of her as old. When she looks at me, it's like she's seeing all the good things about me, none of the bad.**

"You're such a great mother," Hera smiled at Sally, who blushed.  
"Thank you, lady Hera," she said.

**I've never heard her raise her voice or say an unkind word to anyone, not even me or Gabe.**

"Wow," said everyone. That was impressive!"  
"Not even to Gabe," repeated Ares. "Or to anyone. How is that possible?"

**"Oh, Percy." She hugged me tight. "I can't believe it. You've grown since Christmas!"**

**Her red-white-and-blue Sweet on America uniform smelled like the best things in the world: chocolate, licorice, and all the other stuff she sold at the candy shop in Grand Central. She'd brought me a huge bag of "free samples," the way she always did when I came home.**

"Your mom is so awesome," the Stolls sighed together enviously.

**We sat together on the edge of the bed. While I attacked the blueberry sour strings, she ran her hand through my hair and demanded to know everything I hadn't put in my letters. She didn't mention anything about my getting expelled. She didn't seem to care about that. But was I okay? Was her little boy doing all right?**

"Aw, you're her little boy," Ares sneered.  
Aphrodite took off her ten-inch-heeled stiletto and threw it at Ares.  
"OW! MY EYE!" he yelled.  
"GOOD FOR YOU!" Aphrodite yelled back.

**I told her she was smothering me, and to lay off and all that, but secretly, I was really, really glad to see her.**

"How nice," Hera said. "Why can't my sons be like that?"  
"I'm the god of war," Ares said simply.

"You threw me off Mount Olympus," Hephaestus replied.

Hera bit her lip. _I'm sorry, Hephaestus, _she thought-told Hephaestus, who gave her a small smile.

**From the other room, Gabe yelled, "Hey, Sally. How about some bean dip, huh?"**

Everyone growled.

**I gritted my teeth. My mom is the nicest lady in the world. She should've been married to a millionaire, not to some jerk like Gabe. For her sake, I tried to sound upbeat about my last days at Yancy Academy. I told her I wasn't too down about the expulsion. I'd lasted almost the whole year this time.**

"That's good," said Sally, smiling at Percy. "It's improving!"

**I'd made some new friends. I'd done pretty well in Latin. And honestly, the fights hadn't been as bad as the headmaster said. I liked Yancy Academy. I really did. I put such a good spin on the year, I almost convinced myself. I started choking up, thinking about Grover and Mr. Brunner. Even Nancy Bobofit suddenly didn't seem so bad.**

"Wow," said Grover.

**Until that trip to the museum...**

**"What?" my mom asked. Her eyes tugged at my conscience, trying to pull out the secrets. "Did something scare you?"**

**"No, Mom."**

"Don't lie to your mother, Percy," reprimanded Mrs. Weasley.

**I felt bad lying. I wanted to tell her about Mrs. Dodds and the three old ladies with the yarn, but I thought it would sound stupid. She pursed her lips. She knew I was holding back, but she didn't push me.**

**"I have a surprise for you," she said. "We're going to the beach."**

**My eyes widened. "Montauk?"**

**"Three nights - same cabin."**

**"When?"**

**She smiled. "As soon as I get changed."**

**I couldn't believe it. My mom and I hadn't been to Montauk the last two summers, because Gabe said there wasn't enough money.**

Poseidon growled. "Arse."

**Gabe appeared in the doorway and growled, "Bean dip, Sally? Didn't you hear me?**

"She did, and she's NOT your servant!" Artemis said icily. "She's a WOMAN."

**I wanted to punch him, but I met my mom's eyes and I understood she was offering me a deal: be nice to Gabe for a little while. Just until she was ready to leave for Montauk. Then we would get out of here.**

**"I was on my way, honey," she told Gabe. "We were just talking about the trip."**

**Gabe's eyes got small. "The trip? You mean you were serious about that?"**

"Well, yeah, it's our only source of freedom from him," spat Percy.

**"I knew it," I muttered. "He won't let us go."**

**"Of course he will," my mom said evenly. "Your step father is just worried about money. That's all. Besides," she added, "Gabriel won't have to settle for bean dip. I'll make him enough seven-layer dip for the whole weekend. Guacamole. Sour cream. The works."**

"Bribery! You are officially awesome, Sally!" Hermes grinned widely.

Sally laughed. "Thank you lord...Hermes?"  
"Yep!" Hermes grinned.

**Gabe softened a bit. "So this money for your trip ... it comes out of your clothes budget, right?"**

**"Yes, honey," my mother said.**

**"And you won't take my car anywhere but there and back."**

**"We'll be very careful."**

**Gabe scratched his double chin. "Maybe if you hurry with that seven-layer dip ... And maybe if the kid apologizes for interrupting my poker game."**

"Is he joking?" demanded Hermione.

"Unfortunately, no," Percy said.

**Maybe if I kick you in your soft spot, I thought. And make you sing soprano for a week.**

Everyone burst out laughing, cracking up.  
"Do it!" urged Apollo between hysterical laughs.

Even Sally, Hades, Dumbledore, McGonagall and Snape's lips were twitching.

**But my mom's eyes warned me not to make him did she put up with this guy? I wanted to scream. Why did she care what he thought?**

**"I'm sorry," I muttered. "I'm really sorry I interrupted your incredibly important poker game. Please go back to it right now."**

**Gabe's eyes narrowed. His tiny brain was probably trying to detect sarcasm in my statement.**

"He is so stupid," said Athena.

**"Yeah, whatever," he decided.**

**He went back to his game.**

"Well, I say good riddance," said Fred.

**"Thank you, Percy," my mom said. "Once we get to Montauk, we'll talk more about... whatever you've forgotten to tell me, okay?"**

"If only we had the chance," Percy said.

**For a moment, I thought I saw anxiety in her eyes — the same fear I'd seen in Grover during the bus ride — as if my mom too felt an odd chill in the air. But then her smile returned, and I figured I must have been mistaken. She ruffled my hair and went to make Gabe his seven-layer dip.**

"Sneak food poisoning or pee or something into it!" urged Nico.

**An hour later we were ready to leave.**

**Gabe took a break from his poker game long enough to watch me lug my mom's bags to the car. He kept griping and groaning about losing her cooking — and more important, his '78 Camaro for the whole weekend.**

"Uncle Vernon cares about his family and reputation more than a car," Harry said.

"Lucky," muttered Percy.

**"Not a scratch on this car, brain boy," he warned me as I loaded the last bag. "Not one little scratch."**

**Like I'd be the one driving. I was twelve.**

"Ron and Harry drove a car!" laughed Hermione. "When they were twelve!"  
"What? Really?" Percy asked.  
"Yeah!" nodded Fred. "To Hogwarts! Best grand entrance EVER!"

**But that didn't matter to Gabe. If a seagull so much as pooped on his paint job, he'd find a way to blame me.**

Poseidon snapped his fingers. "A million seagulls will go and poop on his car," he said.

**Watching him lumber back toward the apartment building, I got so mad I did something I can't explain. As Gabe reached the doorway, I made the hand gesture I'd seen Grover make on the bus, a sort of warding-off-evil gesture, a clawed hand over my heart, then a shoving movement toward Gabe. The screen door slammed shut so hard it whacked him in the butt and sent him flying up the stair case as if he'd been shot from a cannon. Maybe it was just the wind, or some freak accident with the hinges, but I didn't stay long enough to find out.**

"Awesome!" Apollo and Hermes high-fived.

"What'd you do?" Ron asked in confusion.

"I still have no clue," admitted Percy.

**I got in the Camaro and told my mom to step on it.**

"Good idea," nodded Travis. "Get away before he calls the cops."

**Our rental cabin was on the south shore, way out at the tip of Long Island. It was a little pastel box with faded curtains, half sunken into the dunes. There was always sand in the sheets and spiders in the cabinets,**

Annabeth and Ron shivered.  
"I HATE spiders!" Annabeth said.  
"Me too," Ron agreed.

They froze and stared at each other.  
"Children of Athena are enemies and terrified of spiders, because of Arachne," explained Annabeth. "What's your excuse?"  
"Fred turned my teddy bear into a giant spider because I accidently broke his toy broomstick," replied Ron.  
"FREDRICK!" yelled Mrs. Weasley.  
"He broke it on purpose," Fred protested, but he was snickering.

**and most of the time the sea was too cold to swim in.**

**I loved the place.**

**We'd been going there since I was a baby. My mom had been going even longer. She never exactly said, but I knew why the beach was special to her. It was the place where she'd met my dad.**

"Aw," Aphrodite cooed.

**As we got closer to Montauk, she seemed to grow younger, years of worry and work disappearing from her face. Her eyes turned the color of the sea.**

**We got there at sunset, opened all the cabin's windows, and went through our usual cleaning routine. We walked on the beach, fed blue corn chips to the seagulls, and munched on blue jelly beans, blue saltwater taffy, and all the other free samples my mom had brought from work.**

**I guess I should explain the blue food.**

"I'm hungry," Ron said.

"We'll get something to eat after this chapter," said Hermione.

**See, Gabe had once told my mom there was no such thing. They had this fight, which seemed like a really small thing at the time. But ever since, my mom went out of her way to eat blue. She baked blue birthday cakes. She mixed blueberry smoothies. She bought blue-corn tortilla chips and brought home blue candy from the shop. This — along with keeping her maiden name, Jackson, rather than calling herself Mrs. Ugliano — was proof that she wasn't totally suckered by Gabe. She did have a rebellious streak, like me.**

"Good, an independent woman," said Artemis, smiling at Sally. "Good."

**When it got dark, we made a fire. We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. Mom told me stories about when she was a kid, back before her parents died in the plane crash. She told me about the books she wanted to write someday, when she had enough money to quit the candy shop. Eventually, I got up the nerve to ask about what was always on my mind whenever we came to Montauk — my father. Mom's eyes went all misty. I figured she would tell me the same things she always did, but I never got tired of hearing them.**

**"He was kind, Percy," she said. "Tall, handsome, and powerful. But gentle, too. You have his black hair, you know, and his green eyes."**

"Tall, yes," Thalia said.  
"Powerful, duh," Nico added.  
"Handsome? NEVR!" they yelled together.

"Are you two always teasing him?" Ginny asked.  
"We three are children of the Big Three gods," explained Percy, "we're like siblings. So if I douse Thalia with water, she'll strike me with lightning. If I stab Nico, one of his skeleton warriors will shoot me in the head."  
"Ouch?" Ron guessed.  
"I have the Achilles Curse," explained Percy. **(A.N. Remember, the Lost Hero and Son of Neptune haven't happened yet.)**

"**Mom fished a blue jelly bean out of her candy bag. "I wish he could see you, Percy. He would be so proud."**

**I wondered how she could say that. What was so great about me? A dyslexic, hyperactive boy with a D+ report card, kicked out of school for the sixth time in six years.**

"I'm immensely proud," Poseidon said quietly. Percy pretended not to hear him.

**"How old was I?" I asked. "I mean ... when he left?"**

**She watched the flames. "He was only with me for one summer, Percy. Right here at this beach. This cabin."**

**"But... he knew me as a baby."**

**"No, honey. He knew I was expecting a baby, but he never saw you. He had to leave before you were born."**

Poseidon looked at Percy, who was interested in one of the floating candles. He sighed.

**I tried to square that with the fact that I seemed to remember ... something about my father. A warm glow. A smile.**

"You visited him?!" Zeus asked.  
"What're you going to do about it?" retorted Poseidon.

Zeus shut up.

**I had always assumed he knew me as a baby. My mom had never said it outright, but still, I'd felt it must be true. Now, to be told that he'd never even seen me...**

**I felt angry at my father. Maybe it was stupid, but I resented him for going on that ocean voyage, for not having the guts to marry my mom. He'd left us, and now we were stuck with Smelly Gabe.**

"I'm sorry," Poseidon said. Percy still examined that one candle.

"He understands now," Sally told Poseidon.

**"Are you going to send me away again?" I asked her. "To another boarding school?"**

**She pulled a marshmallow from the fire.**

**"I don't know, honey." Her voice was heavy. "I think ... I think we'll have to do something."**

**"Because you don't want me around?"**

"PERCY JACKSON!" Annabeth shouted.  
"I'm sorry! I thought she thought that if I was away Gabe wouldn't act so rude!" Percy said. "Oh. That's actually pretty logical," admitted Annabeth.

Sally sighed. "You could've told me that," she said.

**I regretted the words as soon as they were out. My mom's eyes welled with tears. She took my hand, squeezed it tight. "Oh, Percy, no. I-I have to, honey. For your own good. I have to send you away."**

**Her words reminded me of what Mr. Brunner had said — that it was best for me to leave Yancy.**

**"Because I'm not normal," I said.**

"Great, Chiron, now the boy's all pessimistic about himself," Demeter huffed. "He needs more cereal!"

**"You say that as if it's a bad thing, Percy. But you don't realize how important you are. I thought Yancy Academy would be far enough away. I thought you'd finally be safe."**

**"Safe from what?"**

**She met my eyes, and a flood of memories came back to me — all the weird, scary things that had ever happened to me, some of which I'd tried to forget.**

**During third grade, a man in a black trench coat had stalked me on the playground. When the teachers threatened to call the police, he went away growling, but no one believed me when I told them that under his broad-brimmed hat, the man only had one eye, right in the middle of his head.**

"Someone had to check up on Percy," Poseidon explained.

**Before that — a really early memory. I was in preschool, and a teacher accidentally put me down for a nap in a cot that a snake had slithered into. My mom screamed when she came to pick me up and found me playing with a limp, scaly rope I'd somehow managed to strangle to death with my meaty toddler hands.**

"Like Heracles!" Annabeth sounded amazed. "Percy, you're really powerful!"  
"And strong," said Katie, looking awed. "Wow."

**In every single school, something creepy had happened, something unsafe, and I was forced to move.**

"Poor dear," said Mrs. Weasley.

**I knew I should tell my mom about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodds at the art museum, about my weird hallucination that I had sliced my math teacher into dust with a sword. But I couldn't make myself tell her. I had a strange feeling the news would end our trip to Montauk, and I didn't want that.**

**"I've tried to keep you as close to me as I could," my mom said. "They told me that was a mistake. But there's only one other option, Percy — the place your father wanted to send you. And I just... I just can't stand to do it."**

**"My father wanted me to go to a special school?"**

**"Not a school," she said softly. "A summer camp."**

"A summer camp?" Hermione sounded confused.

"Read," Percy offered.

**My head was spinning. Why would my dad — who hadn't even stayed around long enough to see me born — talk to my mom about a summer camp? And if it was so important, why hadn't she ever mentioned it before?**

**"I'm sorry, Percy," she said, seeing the look in my eyes. "But I can't talk about it. I-I couldn't send you to that place. It might mean saying good-bye to you for good."**

**"For good? But if it's only a summer camp..."**

**She turned toward the fire, and I knew from her expression that if I asked her any more questions she would start to cry.**

"Poor Sally," sighed Annabeth.

**That night I had a vivid dream.**

"Oh, no, not a Percy-dream," groaned Annabeth. "His our the worst."

**It was storming on the beach, and two beautiful animals, a white horse and a golden eagle, were trying to kill each other at the edge of the surf.**

"Zeus and Poseidon," said Nico.

Thalia and Percy nodded glumly.

**The eagle swooped down and slashed the horse's muzzle with its huge talons. The horse reared up and kicked at the eagles wings. As they fought, the ground rumbled, and a monstrous voice chuckled somewhere beneath the earth, goading the animals to fight harder.**

**I ran toward them, knowing I had to stop them from killing each other, but I was running in slow motion. I knew I would be too late. I saw the eagle dive down, its beak aimed at the horse's wide eyes, and I screamed, ****_No!_**

"Oh, no," said Hermione.

**I woke with a start.**

**Outside, it really was storming, the kind of storm that cracks trees and blows down houses. There was no horse or eagle on the beach, just lightning making false daylight, and twenty-foot waves pounding the dunes like artillery.**

**With the next thunderclap, my mom woke. She sat up, eyes wide, and said, "Hurricane."**

**I knew that was crazy. Long Island never sees hurricanes this early in the summer. But the ocean seemed to have forgotten. Over the roar of the wind, I heard a distant bellow, an angry, tortured sound that made my hair stand on end. Then a much closer noise, like mallets in the sand. A desperate voice — someone yelling, pounding on our cabin door.**

**My mother sprang out of bed in her nightgown and threw open the lock.**

**Grover stood framed in the doorway against a backdrop of pouring rain. But he wasn't... he wasn't exactly Grover.**

"It was…GOAT BOY!" yelled Travis, trying to lighten the mood. It somewhat worked; a few people gave weak chuckles.

**"Searching all night," he gasped. "What were you thinking?"**

**My mother looked at me in terror — not scared of Grover, but of why he'd come.**

**"Percy," she said, shouting to be heard over the rain. "What happened at school? What didn't you tell me?"**

**I was frozen, looking at Grover. I couldn't understand what I was seeing.**

**"****_O Zeu kai alloi theoi!_****" he yelled. "It's right behind me! Didn't you tell her?"**

"No, he didn't!" said Annabeth.

**I was too shocked to register that he'd just cursed in Ancient Greek, and I'd understood him perfectly. I was too shocked to wonder how Grover had gotten here by himself in the middle of the night. Because Grover didn't have his pants on — and where his legs should be ... where his legs should be...**

**My mom looked at me sternly and talked in a tone she'd never used before: "Percy. Tell me now!"**

**I stammered something about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodds, and my mom stared at me, her face deathly pale in the flashes of lightning.**

**She grabbed her purse, tossed me my rain jacket, and said, "Get to the car. Both of you. Go!"**

**Grover ran for the Camaro — but he wasn't running, exactly. He was trotting, shaking his shaggy hindquarters, and suddenly his story about a muscular disorder in his legs made sense to me. I understood how he could run so fast and still limp when he walked.**

"'Cause he's a satyr!" said Connor.

**Because where his feet should be, there were no feet. There were cloven hooves.**

Everyone let that sink in.

"Lunch time," Professor McGonagall interrupted the thick silence. Everyone abruptly stood, stretching, and food appeared on the long wooden tables.


	5. Bullfighting With My Mom

Please review this chapter! If you do, you got a virtual pack of delicious REDVINES!

* * *

After the lunch break, everyone gathered to read the next chapter.

"I'll read," said Demeter.

**My Mother Teaches Me Bullfighting**

****"You bullfight?" Poseidon asked Sally nervously.

She shook her head, pale.

**We tore through the night along dark country roads. Wind slammed against the Camaro. Rain lashed the wind shield. I didn't know how my mom could see anything, but she kept her foot on the gas. Every time there was a flash of lightning, I looked at Grover sitting next to me in the backseat and I wondered if I'd gone insane, or if he was wearing some kind of shag-carpet pants.**

**"**That'd be hilarious if he was," snickered Fred.

**But, no, the smell was one I remembered from kindergarten field trips to the petting zoo — lanolin, like from wool. The smell of a wet barnyard animal.**

"Grover, the barnyard animal!" grinned Travis. "That's even better than Goat Boy!"

**All I could think to say was, "So, you and my mom... know each other?"**

"Nice," said Nico, grinning.

"I was in shock," Percy reminded him defensively.

**Grover's eyes flitted to the rearview mirror, though there were no cars behind us. "Not exactly," he said. "I mean, we've never met in person. But she knew I was watching you."**

**"Watching me?"**

**"Keeping tabs on you. Making sure you were okay. But I wasn't faking being your friend," he added hastily. "I am your friend."**

**"Urm ... what are you, exactly?"**

**"That doesn't matter right now."**

**"It doesn't matter? From the waist down, my best friend is a donkey—"**

"Oh, you did NOT just say that!" Grover yelled.  
Percy uncapped Riptide. "Get back, barnyard animal," he warned. "I know karate!" He made Light-Saber sounds as he waved his sword around like one.

**Grover let out a sharp, throaty "Blaa-ha-ha!"**

"Blaa-ha-ha?" Is that a demented laugh?" Ron asked, confused.

Everyone snickered.

**I'd heard him make that sound before, but I'd always assumed it was a nervous laugh. Now I realized it was more of an irritated bleat.**

**"Goat!" he cried.**

**"What?"**

**"I'm a goat from the waist down."**

**"You just said it didn't matter."**

"Is this really a time to begin arguing?" Annabeth asked.

"No," the two boys said sheepishly.

**"There are satyrs who would trample you underhoof for such an insult!"**

**"Whoa. Wait. Satyrs. You mean like ... Mr. Brunner's myths?"**

**"Were those old ladies at the fruit stand a myth, Percy? Was Mrs. Dodds a myth?"**

**"So you admit there was a Mrs. Dodds!"**

Everyone stared at Percy. Finally, Nico blinked.  
"Wow, Percy, I can't even put into words on how stupid that was," Nico sighed.

"Says the guy who asked-" began Percy, and Nico said, "NEVER MIND!" Percy grinned.

**"Of course."**

**"Then why—"**

**"The less you knew, the fewer monsters you'd attract," Grover said, like that should be perfectly obvious. "We put Mist over the humans' eyes. We hoped you'd think the Kindly One was a hallucination. But it was no good. You started to realize who you are."**

"No Styx," Thalia grumbled.

**"Who I — wait a minute, what do you mean?"**

**The weird bellowing noise rose up again somewhere behind us, closer than before. Whatever was chasing us was still on our trail.**

**"Percy," my mom said, "there's too much to explain and not enough time. We have to get you to safety."**

**"Safety from what? Who's after me?"**

**"Oh, nobody much," Grover said, obviously still miffed about the donkey comment.**

"I was," Grover sniffed.  
"Well, get over it!" Annabeth shook him. "YOU ARE BEING CHASED BY A BEAST!"  
Grover blinked and grinned sheepishly. "Point taken."

**"Just the Lord of the Dead and a few of his blood-thirstiest minions."**

**"Grover!"**

**"Sorry, Mrs. Jackson. Could you drive faster, please?"**

"Yes, please drive faster," prayed Annabeth.

**I tried to wrap my mind around what was happening, but I couldn't do it. I knew this wasn't a dream. I had no imagination.**

"That is SUCH a lie," said Katie. "He can tell amazing campfire stories, and he also-"

"Keep reading," Percy groaned.

**I could never dream up something this weird. My mom made a hard left. We swerved onto a narrower road, racing past darkened farmhouses and wooded hills and PICK YOUR OWN STRAWBERRIES signs on white picket fences.**

Connor smirked. "Yes," he said loudly. "The strawberries...Travis, like those strawberries?" Travis dreamily stared into the distance.

Katie waved her hand in front of his face. "Travis? TRAVIS STOLL?"

Travis jumped hard. "Huh? Yeah? What?" He regained his composure. "Hey, Katieflower. 'Sup?"

"What's 'up' is that we're reading so PAY ATTENTION!" Katie replied. "And DON'T call me Katieflower!"  
Remus and Sirius exchanged sad glances; Travis and Katie were like James and Lily.

**"Where are we going?" I asked.**

**"The summer camp I told you about." My mother's voice was tight; she was trying for my sake not to be scared. "The place your father wanted to send you."**

**"The place you didn't want me to go."**

**"Please, dear," my mother begged. "This is hard enough. Try to understand. You're in danger."**

**"Because some old ladies cut yarn."**

**"Those weren't old ladies," Grover said. "Those were the Fates. Do you know what it means — the fact they appeared in front of you? They only do that when you're about to ... when someone's about to die."**

**"Whoa. You said '****_you_****'."**

**"No I didn't. I said '****_someone_****'."**

**"You meant '****_you_****'. As in me."**

**"I meant you, like '****_someone_****'. Not you, ****_you_****."**

"You're so confusing," said Thalia.

**"Boys!" my mom said.**

**She pulled the wheel hard to the right, and I got a glimpse of a figure she'd swerved to avoid — a dark fluttering shape now lost behind us in the storm.**

"What the bloody hell was that?" Ron asked nervously.

**"What was that?" I asked.**

"Ha! You two think alike," said Connor.

**"We're almost there," my mother said, ignoring my question. "Another mile. Please. Please. Please."**

**I didn't know where there was, but I found myself leaning forward in the car, anticipating, wanting us to arrive.**

**Outside, nothing but rain and darkness — the kind of empty countryside you get way out on the tip of Long Island. I thought about Mrs. Dodds and the moment when she'd changed into the thing with pointed teeth and leathery wings. My limbs went numb from delayed shock. She really hadn't been human. She'd meant to kill me.**

"No, really?" Nico asked sarcastically.

"I was in panicking mode, which means I wasn't thinking straight!" Percy replied defensively.  
"You NEVER think straight!" Thalia said.

**Then I thought about Mr. Brunner ... and the sword he had thrown me. Before I could ask Grover about that, the hair rose on the back of my neck. There was a blinding flash, a jaw-rattling boom!, and our car exploded.**

"WHAT?!" Poseidon yelled.

"NO!" Annabeth shouted.

Both whirled to glare at Zeus and Hades.

**I remember feeling weightless, like I was being crushed, fried, and hosed down all at the same time. I peeled my forehead off the back of the driver's seat and said, "Ow."**

**"Percy!" my mom shouted.**

**"I'm okay..."**

"You're like Harry," Hermione said. "All he says when he's hurt is, 'm'fine'."  
"Not always," Harry said faintly.

"YES always!" Hermione huffed back.

**I tried to shake off the daze. I wasn't dead. The car hadn't really exploded. We'd swerved into a ditch. Our driver's side-doors were wedged in the mud. The roof had cracked open like an eggshell and rain was pouring in.**

**Lightning.**

Poseidon turned slowly to Zeus, and the king of the gods felt a small twinge of fear flit through him at the look on Poseidon's face.

Poseidon raised his trident when Sally whispered something into his ear. Poseidon said back, "He tried to kill you and Percy!" Sally bit her bottom lip.

"Don't kill him now," Hera said, "wait until after this chapter."

Poseidon glowered at Zeus, and then lowered his godly weapon.

Zeus exhaled, and Hera sighed. Families were so messy.

**That was the only explanation. We'd been blasted right off the road. Next to me in the backseat was a big motionless lump. "Grover!"**

**He was slumped over, blood trickling from the side of his mouth. I shook his furry hip, thinking, ****_No! Even if you are half barnyard animal, you're my best friend and I don't want you to die!_**

Everyone snickered.

**Then he groaned "Food," and I knew there was hope.**

Everyone chuckled.

**"Percy," my mother said, "we have to ..." Her voice faltered.**

**I looked back. In a flash of lightning, through the mud-spattered rear windshield, I saw a figure lumbering toward us on the shoulder of the road. The sight of it made my skin crawl. It was a dark silhouette of a huge guy, like a football player.**

"What's foot-" began Ron.  
"SHUT UP, RON!" Harry and Hermione yelled together.

**He seemed to be holding a blanket over his head. His top half was bulky and fuzzy. His upraised hands made it look like he had horns.**

**I swallowed hard. "Who is—"**

**"Percy," my mother said, deadly serious. "Get out of the car."**

**My mother threw herself against the driver's-side door. It was jammed shut in the mud. I tried mine. Stuck too. I looked up desperately at the hole in the roof. It might've been an exit, but the edges were sizzling and smoking.**

**"Climb out the passenger's side!" my mother told me. "Percy — you have to run. Do you see that big tree?"**

**"What?"**

**Another flash of lightning, and through the smoking hole in the roof I saw the tree she meant: a huge, White House Christmas tree-sized pine at the crest of the nearest hill.**

"That's me," Thalia said grimly.

Nobody even bothered to ask; they'd get a, "you'll find out soon."

**"That's the property line," my mom said. "Get over that hill and you'll see a big farmhouse down in the valley. Run and don't look back. Yell for help. Don't stop until you reach the door."**

**"Mom, you're coming too." Her face was pale, her eyes as sad as when she looked at the ocean.**

"I'm sorry, mom, I should've listened to you," Percy mumbled.  
"No, Percy, you did the right thing," Sally said, smiling warmly.

**"No!" I shouted. "You are coming with me. Help me carry Grover."**

**"Food!" Grover moaned, a little louder.**

**The man with the blanket on his head kept coming toward us, making his grunting, snorting noises. As he got closer, I realized he couldn't be holding a blanket over his head, because his hands — huge meaty hands — were swinging at his sides. There was no blanket. Meaning the bulky, fuzzy mass that was too big to be his head ... was his head. And the points that looked like horns...**

"NO!" Annabeth startled everyone with her scream. "IT'S THE MINOTAUR!"  
**"He doesn't want us," my mother told me. "He wants you. Besides, I can't cross the property line."**

**"But..."**

**"We don't have time, Percy. Go. Please."**

**I got mad, then — mad at my mother, at Grover the goat, at the thing with horns that was lumbering toward us slowly and deliberately like, like a bull.**

"When Percy's mad, evacuate the area," Annabeth informed everyone.

"Good to know," said Connor. "'Cause he can really murder things-remember my poor hat?" "It wasn't poor, nor a hat," said Percy curtly. "It was a scorpion."

"Idiot," Katie smacked him.

**I climbed across Grover and pushed the door open into the rain. "We're going together. Come on, Mom."**

**"I told you—"**

**"Mom! I am not leaving you. Help me with Grover."**

**I didn't wait for her answer. I scrambled outside, dragging Grover from the car. He was surprisingly light, but I couldn't have carried him very far if my mom hadn't come to my aid. Together, we draped Grover's arms over our shoulders and started stumbling uphill through wet waist-high grass.**

**Glancing back, I got my first clear look at the monster. He was seven feet tall, easy, his arms and legs like something from the cover of Muscle Man magazine bulging biceps and triceps and a bunch of other 'ceps, all stuffed like baseballs under vein-webbed skin. He wore no clothes except underwear**

Everyone did a double-take.

"Excuse me?" said Hermione, incredulous and a little grossed out.

"You heard me," nodded Percy.

**— I mean, bright white Fruit of the Looms — which would've looked funny, except that the top half of his body was so scary. Coarse brown hair started at about his belly button and got thicker as it reached his shoulders.**

**His neck was a mass of muscle and fur leading up to his enormous head, which had a snout as long as my arm, snotty nostrils with a gleaming brass ring, cruel black eyes, and horns - enormous black-and-white horns with points you just couldn't get from an electric sharpener.**

**I recognized the monster, all right. He had been in one of the first stories Mr. Brunner told us. But he couldn't be real.**

**I blinked the rain out of my eyes. "That's—"**

**"Pasiphaë's son," my mother said.**

"Wow, you're really smart, Mrs. Jackson," said Nico in admiration.

Athena nodded, smiling at Sally; maybe they could become friends and discuss topics that everyone else thought were wildly impossible to understand.

**"I wish I'd known how badly they want to kill you."**

**"But he's the Min—"**

**"Don't say his name," she warned. "Names have power."**

**The pine tree was still way too far — a hundred yards uphill at least.**

"Say hi to me!" Thalia said. Finally, Hermione had to ask.  
"You?" she asked.

"Yep! I was turned into a tree, courtesy of my beloved father," she said bitterly.

Zeus shifted.

**I glanced behind me again.**

**The bull-man hunched over our car, looking in the windows — or not looking, exactly. More like snuffling, nuzzling. I wasn't sure why he bothered, since we were only about fifty feet away.**

**"Food?" Grover moaned.**

**"Shhh," I told him. "Mom, what's he doing? Doesn't he see us?"**

**"His sight and hearing are terrible," she said. "He goes by smell. But he'll figure out where we are soon enough."**

"You're VERY smart," Athena admired.

**As if on cue, the bull-man bellowed in rage. He picked up Gabe's Camaro by the torn roof, the chassis creaking and groaning. He raised the car over his head and threw it down the road. It slammed into the wet asphalt and skidded in a shower of sparks for about half a mile before coming to a stop. The gas tank exploded.**

**Not a scratch, I remembered Gabe saying.**

**Oops.**

Despite the seriousness of the situation, everyone burst out laughing.

**"Percy," my mom said. "When he sees us, he'll charge. Wait until the last second, then jump out of the way — directly sideways. He can't change directions very well once he's charging. Do you understand?"**

**"How do you know all this?"**

**"I've been worried about an attack for a long time. I should have expected this. I was selfish, keeping you near me."**

"Selfish? No, never selfish," said Poseidon.  
Sally smiled. "Thank you, but I do believe I caused a Minotaur and Fury to come after our son. I regret that."  
"Mom, it just prepared me for the rest of my danger-filled life," Percy replied, smiling. "You did nothing wrong."  
Sally smiled, unconvinced.

**"Keeping me near you? But—"**

**Another bellow of rage, and the bull-man started tromping uphill.**

**He'd smelled us.**

**The pine tree was only a few more yards, but the hill was getting steeper and slicker, and Grover wasn't getting any lighter. The bull-man closed in. Another few seconds and he'd be on top of us.**

**My mother must've been exhausted, but she shouldered Grover. "Go, Percy! Separate! Remember what I said."**

Percy abruptly stood up. "I need some water!" he said and bolted out. Everyone stared after him.

Sally frowned, "Let him go. This part is extremely hard on him, I assume."

**I didn't want to split up, but I had the feeling she was right — it was our only chance. I sprinted to the left, turned, and saw the creature bearing down on me. His black eyes glowed with hate. He reeked like rotten meat.**

**He lowered his head and charged, those razor-sharp horns aimed straight at my chest. The fear in my stomach made me want to bolt, but that wouldn't work. I could never outrun this thing.**

**So I held my ground, and at the last moment, I jumped to the side. The bull-man stormed past like a freight train, then bellowed with frustration and turned, but not toward me this time, toward my mother, who was setting Grover down in the grass.**

"Oh, no," said Hermione, realizing what would happen. Fred and George were uncharacteristically grim, staring at the door where Percy Jackson had just slammed through.

**We'd reached the crest of the hill. Down the other side I could see a valley, just as my mother had said, and the lights of a farmhouse glowing yellow through the rain. But that was half a mile away. We'd never make it.**

**The bull-man grunted, pawing the ground. He kept eyeing my mother, who was now retreating slowly downhill, back toward the road, trying to lead the monster away from Grover.**

"Thanks Mrs. Jackson," Grover whispered. "I'm so sorry about-"

"No, Grover, you protected Percy," she cut him off, smiling kindly. "You did everything you could."

**"Run, Percy!" she told me. "I can't go any farther. Run!"**

**But I just stood there, frozen in fear, as the monster charged her. She tried to sidestep, as she'd told me to do, but the monster had learned his lesson. His hand shot out and grabbed her by the neck as she tried to get away.**

Poseidon gripped his trident, his eyes smoldering the sea, unsure who to blast first.

"I'm fine," Sally smiled reassuringly, but she was wondering where Percy was.

**He lifted her as she struggled, kicking and pummeling the air.**

**"Mom!"**

**She caught my eyes, managed to choke out one last word: "****_Go!_****"**

**Then, with an angry roar, the monster closed his fists around my mother's neck, and she dissolved before my eyes, melting into light, a shimmering golden form, as if she were a holographic projection. A blinding flash, and she was simply ... gone.**

Poseidon's threw his trident at Hades. A blinding flash, and Hades was on the floor, unconscious.

Poseidon grimly sat down as the floor rippled and then a tsunami wave smashed down, through the ceiling.

"POSEIDON!" yelled Athena. "STOP THIS NONESENSE!"  
The students screamed, ducking under the tables for cover, but the water never came. Poseidon stood, shocked, staring at Athena.

"You called me Poseidon," he said. "Not anything else."  
Athena looked unsettled, too. Sally smiled. Poseidon, still stunned, waved his trident. The water evaporated into a cold, refreshing mist. Everyone cautiously crept back up and sat down uncertainly.

"Where's Percy?" Sally asked in an undertone. Naturally, everyone heard.

"He'll come back soon," Poseidon reassured her.

**"No!"**

**Anger replaced my fear. Newfound strength burned in my limbs — the same rush of energy I'd gotten when Mrs. Dodds grew talons. The bull-man bore down on Grover, who lay helpless in the grass. The monster hunched over, snuffling my best friend, as if he were about to lift Grover up and make him dissolve too.**

Grover shuddered. That thought wasn't amongst his dreams of unicorns and daisies.

**I couldn't allow that. I stripped off my red rain jacket.**

**"Hey!" I screamed, waving the jacket, running to one side of the monster. "Hey, stupid! Ground beef!"**

**"Raaaarrrrr!" The monster turned toward me, shaking his meaty fists.**

"Seaweed Brain!" Annabeth cried exasperatedly.

**I had an idea — a stupid idea, but better than no idea at all. I put my back to the big pine tree and waved my red jacket in front of the bull-man, thinking I'd jump out of the way at the last moment.**

**But it didn't happen like that.**

**The bull-man charged too fast, his arms out to grab me whichever way I tried to dodge.**

**Time slowed down.**

"Kronos?" Travis asked. Nobody answered. Of course.

**My legs tensed. I couldn't jump sideways, so I leaped straight up, kicking off from the creature's head, using it as a springboard, turning in midair, and landing on his neck.**

"WHOA!" yelled the wizards and witches.

"WHOA! AWESOME!" the demigods yelled.

The Olympians just looked much impressed.

**How did I do that?**

**I didn't have time to figure it out. A millisecond later, the monster's head slammed into the tree and the impact nearly knocked my teeth out.**

**The bull-man staggered around, trying to shake me. I locked my arms around his horns to keep from being thrown. Thunder and lightning were still going strong. The rain was in my eyes. The smell of rotten meat burned my nostrils. The monster shook himself around and bucked like a rodeo bull. He should have just backed up into the tree and smashed me flat, but I was starting to realize that this thing had only one gear: forward.**

"Kill him!" yelled Ares. Everyone stared at him, eyebrows raised. "The Minotaur, not the idiot!"  
Poseidon splashed Ares with frigid eel-infested water.

**Meanwhile, Grover started groaning in the grass. I wanted to yell at him to shut up, but the way I was getting tossed around, if I opened my mouth I'd bite my own tongue off.**

**"Food!" Grover moaned.**

**The bull-man wheeled toward him, pawed the ground again, and got ready to charge. I thought about how he had squeezed the life out of my mother, made her disappear in a flash of light, and rage filled me like high-octane fuel. I got both hands around one horn and I pulled backward with all my might. The monster tensed, gave a surprised grunt, then —****_ snap!_**

Everyone's jaws were in Earth's inner core.  
"Whoa," managed Thalia. "He's..."  
"Crazy," Annabeth continued. "And..."  
"Powerful," finished Nico.

**The bull-man screamed and flung me through the air. I landed flat on my back in the grass. My head smacked against a rock. When I sat up, my vision was blurry, but I had a horn in my hands, a ragged bone weapon the size of a knife.**

**The monster charged.**

"RUN!" yelled the Stolls.

**Without thinking, I rolled to one side and came up kneeling. As the monster barreled past, I drove the broken horn straight into his side, right up under his furry rib cage**

**The bull-man roared in agony. He flailed, clawing at his chest, then began to disintegrate — not like my mother, in a flash of golden light, but like crumbling sand, blown away in chunks by the wind, the same way Mrs. Dodds had burst apart.**

**The monster was gone.**

Everyone's jaws promptly dropped again.

"He-he killed a full-grown Minotaur," said Artemis in shock. "He's twelve."

**The rain had stopped. The storm still rumbled, but only in the distance. I smelled like livestock and my knees were shaking. My head felt like it was splitting open. I was weak and scared and trembling with grief.**

"Speaking of Percy..." Poseidon frowned. "He still isn't back?"  
"Wait until the end of the chapter," suggested Sally.

**I'd just seen my mother vanish. I wanted to lie down and cry, but there was Grover, needing my help, so I managed to haul him up and stagger down into the valley, toward the lights of the farm house. I was crying, calling for my mother, but I held on to Grover — I wasn't going to let him go.**

Everyone had tears in their eyes. **(A.N. Everyone always means everyone but Dumbledore, McGonagall, the Slytherins, Ares, Hades, Snape and Chiron.)** Harry glanced at Sirius, who smiled at him reassuringly.

**The last thing I remember is collapsing on a wooden porch, looking up at a ceiling fan circling above me, moths flying around a yellow light, and the stern faces of a familiar-looking bearded man and a pretty girl, her blond hair curled like a princess's.**

"A-Annabeth," said Thalia hoarsely, smiling slightly though.

"A princess?" Annabeth managed to groan. "What'll I do with this Seaweed Brain?"

**They both looked down at me, and the girl said, "He's the one. He must be."**

**"Silence, Annabeth," the man said. "He's still conscious. Bring him inside."**

"Thanks, Chiron," said Poseidon. "Now, who'll find Percy for me?"


	6. Apparently Mr Brunner's a Magical Pony!

Luckily, Percy didn't need finding; just as Poseidon asked, the doors opened and Percy slouched in. Everyone watched him sit down next to Annabeth, who patted his arm. Apollo began reading.

**I had weird dreams full of barnyard animals. Most of them wanted to kill me. The rest wanted food.**

"Even for you, Perce, that's an odd dream," snickered Travis.

**I must've woken up several times, but what I heard and saw made no sense, so I just passed out again. I remember lying in a soft bed, being spoon-fed something that tasted like buttered popcorn, only it was pudding.**

"Sounds delicious," Ron admitted.

**The girl with curly blond hair hovered over me, smirking as she scraped drips off my chin with the spoon.**

"Aw, Annabeth's feeding you?" Aphrodite cooed.

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Chiron made me."

**When she saw my eyes open, she asked, "What will happen at the summer solstice?"**

"How was I supposed to know?" Percy demanded.

"I have don't know! I had to ask before Chiron arrived!" Annabeth replied defensively.

**I managed to croak, "What?"**

**She looked around, as if afraid someone would over hear. "What's going on? What was stolen? We've only got a few weeks!"**

**"I'm sorry," I mumbled, "I don't..."**

**Somebody knocked on the door, and the girl quickly filled my mouth with pudding.**

**The next time I woke up, the girl was gone. A husky blond dude, like a surfer, stood in the corner of the bedroom keeping watch over me. He had blue eyes — at least a dozen of them — on his cheeks, his forehead, the backs of his hands.**

"Argus!" cheered the demigods.

**When I finally came around for good, there was nothing weird about my surroundings, except that they were nicer than I was used to. I was sitting in a deck chair on a huge porch, gazing across a meadow at green hills in the distance. The breeze smelled like strawberries.**

Travis drooled. "Strawberries."  
Connor and Lou Ellen snickered at Katie. All the demigods watched her in amusement.

"Okay!" Katie jumped up. "What's so funny?"  
"Nothing," Connor replied.

**There was a blanket over my legs, a pillow behind my neck. All that was great, but my mouth felt like a scorpion had been using it for a nest. My tongue was dry and nasty and every one of my teeth hurt.**

"Ow," winced Harry.

"It didn't feel like marshmallows," Percy said truthfully.

"I'd expect not," Hermione replied.

**On the table next to me was a tall drink. It looked like iced apple juice, with a green straw and a paper parasol stuck through a maraschino cherry. My hand was so weak I almost dropped the glass once I got my fingers around it.**

**"Careful," a familiar voice said.**

**Grover was leaning against the porch railing, looking like he hadn't slept in a week. Under one arm, he cradled a shoe box. He was wearing blue jeans, Converse hi-tops and a bright orange T-shirt that said CAMP HALF-BLOOD. Just plain old Grover, Not the goat boy.**

"GOAT BOY!" yelled Thalia and Nico together.

"Argh," Grover groaned, slamming his head onto the table.

**So maybe I'd had a nightmare. Maybe my mom was okay. We were still on vacation, and we'd stopped here at this big house for some reason. And...**

Harry sighed. "Don't even bother."  
Percy nodded. "I know."

**"You saved my life," Grover said. "I ... well, the least I could do ... I went back to the hill. I thought you might want this."**

**Reverently, he placed the shoe box in my lap.**

**Inside was a black-and-white bull's horn, the base jagged from being broken off, the tip splattered with dried blood. It hadn't been a nightmare.**

**"The Minotaur," I said.**

"Did you NOT hear your mother explain to you about names having power?" asked Thalia.

"I was in shock!" replied Percy defensively.

**"Um, Percy, it isn't a good idea—"**

**"That's what they call him in the Greek myths, isn't it?" I demanded. "The Minotaur. Half man, half bull."**

**Grover shifted uncomfortably. "You've been out for two days. How much do you remember?"**

**"My mom. Is she really ..."**

**He looked down.**

"It wasn't your fault, Grover," said Percy as Grover opened his mouth to apologize.  
"Yes, it isn't," said Sally, and Grover smiled shyly.

**I stared across the meadow. There were groves of trees, a winding stream, acres of strawberries spread out under the blue sky. The valley was surrounded by rolling hills, and the tallest one, directly in front of us, was the one with the huge pine tree on top. Even that looked beautiful in the sunlight.**

**My mother was gone. The whole world should be black and cold. Nothing should look beautiful.**

Harry sighed. "I know how that feels."  
"We all do," said Annabeth. "Almost every demigod..."  
Sirius pulled Harry closer to him. "I'm right here if you need to talk," he said quietly to Harry, who smiled gratefully up at him.

**He moaned, stomping his foot so hard it came off.**

Hermione blanched. "What?" she asked.

**I mean, the Converse hi-top came off. The inside was filled with Styrofoam, except for a hoof-shaped hole.**

"Ohhhh," Hermione nodded. "I understand now."

**"Oh, Styx!" he mumbled.**

"Styx means 'shi-OW!" Ron yelled as Hermione slapped him.

"Yes, Ron, it does," nodded Rachel.

**Thunder rolled across the clear sky. As he struggled to get his hoof back in the fake foot, I thought, Well, that settles it. Grover was a satyr. I was ready to bet that if I shaved his curly brown hair, I'd find tiny horns on his head.**

"Yep!" Grover smiled proudly as everyone tried not to laugh. "What?"

**But I was too miserable to care that satyrs existed, or even minotaurs. All that meant was my mom really had been squeezed into nothingness, dissolved into yellow light. I was alone. An orphan.**

Harry flinched. "Orphan," he muttered. Sirius frowned at Remus, who came over as well.

"You have Gabe," Nico said. "I didn't have anyone but my sister who was killed on the quest YOU interfered in." Percy looked at him. "I'm sorry-"

Nico sighed. "Never mind. I shouldn't be blaming you." He turned to Zeus. "Thanks for killing my mom, Zeus!"

**I would have to live with ... Smelly Gabe? No. That would never happen. I would live on the streets first. I would pretend I was seventeen and join the army. I'd do something.**

"You must really despise Gabe," noted Luna.

"Yeah," Percy nodded. Sally frowned.  
"I'm sorry, Percy," she said.

**Grover was still sniffling. The poor kid — poor goat, satyr, whatever** (Grover nudged Percy with a smirk on his face)** — looked as if he expected to be hit.**

**I said, "It wasn't your fault."**

**"Yes, it was. I was supposed to protect you."**

**"Did my mother ask you to protect me?"**

**"No. But that's my job. I'm a keeper. At least... I was."**

**"But why ..." I suddenly felt dizzy, my vision swimming.**

"You'd better slow down," warned Fred.  
"Yeah, you might vomit," finished George.

"Which would be bloody brilliant," they said together.

"They make no sense," Hermione told Percy. "Ignore them."

**"Don't strain yourself," Grover said.**

"Thanks, Grover," Percy said. "Though I don't listen to you anyway."

**"Here." He helped me hold my glass and put the straw to my lips.**

**I recoiled at the taste, because I was expecting apple juice. It wasn't that at all. It was chocolate-chip cookies. Liquid cookies.**

"Liquid cookies?" Ron groaned. "Sounds delicious. I'm STARVING!"  
"YOU JUST ATE!" Hermione said.

"So?" Ron asked blankly.

**And not just any cookies — my mom's homemade blue chocolate-chip cookies, buttery and hot, with the chips still melting. Drinking it, my whole body felt warm and good, full of energy. My grief didn't go away, but I felt as if my mom had just brushed her hand against my cheek, given me a cookie the way she used to when I was small, and told me everything was going to be okay.**

Sally had tears in her eyes. "Oh, Percy..."  
"It tasted delicious," Percy said, smiling weakly.

Everyone looked sadly at the two, and Apollo slowly began reading again.

**Before I knew it, I'd drained the glass. I stared into it, sure I'd just had a warm drink, but the ice cubes hadn't even melted.**

"How peculiar," Luna said dreamily.

**"Was it good?" Grover asked.**

**I nodded.**

**"What did it taste like?" He sounded so wistful, I felt guilty.**

**"Sorry," I said. "I should've let you taste."**

**His eyes got wide. "No! That's not what I meant. I just... wondered."**

**"Chocolate-chip cookies," I said. "My mom's. Home made."**

**He sighed. "And how do you feel?"**

**"Like I could throw Nancy Bobofit a hundred yards."**

**"That's good," he said. "That's good. I don't think you could risk drinking any more of that stuff."**

"Why not?" Ron asked, frowning.

"'Cause it'd make him burst into flames," Thalia said. Ron gulped as she continued, "As tempting as that sounds, Poseidon might cause a tsunami that'd destroy the east, and that wouldn't be very good, would it?"  
"Glad I'm loved," Percy grumbled, but he was smiling.

**"What do you mean?"**

**He took the empty glass from me gingerly, as if it were dynamite, and set it back on the table. "Come on. Chiron and Mr. D are waiting."**

**The porch wrapped all the way around the farmhouse.**

**My legs felt wobbly, trying to walk that far. Grover offered to carry the Minotaur horn, but I held on to it. I'd paid for that souvenir the hard way. I wasn't going to let it go.**

"Very determined and stubborn," Hermione mused. "You could pass as Harry with a scar and glasses."  
"And a British accent," Annabeth reminded her.  
"Wait..." said Travis. "Harry's like Percy, Hermione's like Annabeth, Ron's like Grover, I'm like Fred, Connor's like George, Dumbledore's like Chiron-"

"Wow, you're right," agreed Hermione, her eyes wide. "Let's compare later, though. I want to see what happens!"

**As we came around the opposite end of the house, I caught my breath.**

**We must've been on the north shore of Long Island, because on this side of the house, the valley marched all the way up to the water, which glittered about a mile in the distance. Between here and there, I simply couldn't process everything I was seeing. The landscape was dotted with buildings that looked like ancient Greek architecture, an open-air pavilion, an amphitheater, a circular arena, except that they all looked brand new, their white marble columns sparkling in the sun. In a nearby sandpit, a dozen high school-age kids and satyrs played volleyball. Canoes glided across a small lake. Kids in bright orange T-shirts like Grover's were chasing each other around a cluster of cabins nestled in the woods. Some shot targets at an archery range. Others rode horses down a wooded trail, and, unless I was hallucinating, some of their horses had wings.**

"Like Beauxbatons," said Ron. "Right?"  
"With Fleur Delacour," grinned Fred.  
"Zat French girl Bill eez een love weeth," George added in a surprisingly good French accent.

**Down at the end of the porch, two men sat across from each other at a card table. The blond-haired girl who'd spoon-fed me popcorn-flavored pudding was leaning on the porch rail next to them. The man facing me was small, but porky. He had a red nose, big watery eyes, and curly hair so black it was almost purple. He looked like those paintings of baby angels — what do you call them, hubbubs? No, cherubs. That's it. He looked like a cherub who'd turned middle-aged in a trailer park.**

"PETER JOHNSON!" Dionysus yelled.

"Sorry," Percy said, leaning back in his chair. "I was twelve."

**He wore a tiger-pattern Hawaiian shirt, and he would've fit right in at one of Gabe's poker parties, except I got the feeling this guy could've out-gambled even my step father.**

**"That's Mr. D," Grover murmured to me. "He's the camp director. Be polite. The girl, that's Annabeth Chase. She's just a camper, but she's been here longer than just about anybody. And you already know Chiron..."**

**He pointed at the guy whose back was to me.**

**First, I realized he was sitting in the wheelchair. Then I recognized the tweed jacket, the thinning brown hair, the scraggly beard.**

**"Mr. Brunner!" I cried.**

**The Latin teacher turned and smiled at me. His eyes had that mischievous glint they sometimes got in class when he pulled a pop quiz and made all the multiple choice answers B.**

"Nice one, Chiron," Annabeth said. Chiron smiled at her.

**"Ah, good, Percy," he said. "Now we have four for pinochle."**

**He offered me a chair to the right of Mr. D, who looked at me with bloodshot eyes and heaved a great sigh. "Oh, I suppose I must say it. Welcome to Camp Half-Blood. There. Now, don't expect me to be glad to see you." **

"He reminds me of Snape," Ron muttered to Hermione, who nodded, giggling.

**"Uh, thanks." I scooted a little farther away from him because, if there was one thing I had learned from living with Gabe, it was how to tell when an adult has been hitting the happy juice. If Mr. D was a stranger to alcohol, I was a satyr.**

Everyone burst out laughing.

**"Annabeth?" Mr. Brunner called to the blond girl.**

**She came forward and Mr. Brunner introduced us. "This young lady nursed you back to health, Percy. Annabeth, my dear, why don't you go check on Percy's bunk? We'll be putting him in cabin eleven for now."**

**Annabeth said, "Sure, Chiron."**

**She was probably my age, maybe a couple of inches taller, and a whole lot more athletic looking. With her deep tan and her curly blond hair, she was almost exactly what I thought a stereotypical California girl would look like, except her eyes ruined the image. They were startling gray, like storm clouds; pretty, but intimidating, too, as if she were analyzing the best way to take me down in a fight.**

"That's exactly what I was thinking," Annabeth said. "Well, not exactly..."  
"Wha?" asked Percy.

"Never mind," Annabeth replied.

**She glanced at the minotaur horn in my hands, then back at me. I imagined she was going to say, _You killed a minotaur!_ or _Wow, you're so awesome!_ or something like that. Instead she said, "You drool when you sleep."**

Everyone snorted.  
"Classic," said Fred and George.

**Then she sprinted off down the lawn, her blond hair flying behind her.**

**"So," I said, anxious to change the subject. "You, uh, work here, Mr. Brunner?"**

**"Not Mr. Brunner," the ex-Mr. Brunner said. "I'm afraid that was a pseudonym. You may call me Chiron."**

**"Okay." Totally confused, I looked at the director. "And Mr. D ... does that stand for something?"**

**Mr. D stopped shuffling the cards. He looked at me like I'd just belched loudly. "Young man, names are powerful things. You don't just go around using them for no reason."**

"I was ELEVEN!" Percy yelled once more.

**"Oh. Right. Sorry."**

**"I must say, Percy," Chiron-Brunner broke in,**

"Chiron-Brunner?" Annabeth demanded. "Are you serious?"  
"No, I am," Sirius grinned.

Professor McGonagall rolled her eyes. "Mr. Black..."

Sirius grinned.

**"I'm glad to see you alive. It's been a long time since I've made a house call to a potential camper. I'd hate to think I've wasted my time."**

**"House call?"**

**"My year at Yancy Academy, to instruct you. We have satyrs at most schools, of course, keeping a lookout. But Grover alerted me as soon as he met you. He sensed you were something special, so I decided to come upstate. I convinced the other Latin teacher to ... ah, take a leave of absence."**

**I tried to remember the beginning of the school year. It seemed like so long ago, but I did have a fuzzy memory of there being another Latin teacher my first week at Yancy. Then, without explanation, he had disappeared and Mr. Brunner had taken the class.**

"You survived the Mist?" asked Chiron, surprised.

"I guess," Percy muttered.

**"You came to Yancy just to teach me?" I asked.**

**Chiron nodded. "Honestly, I wasn't sure about you at first. We contacted your mother, let her know we were keeping an eye on you in case you were ready for Camp Half-Blood. But you still had so much to learn. Nevertheless, you made it here alive, and that's always the first test."**

"That's a very dangerous test," gulped Ron.

**"Grover," Mr. D said impatiently, "are you playing or not?"**

**"Yes, sir!" Grover trembled as he took the fourth chair, though I didn't know why he should be so afraid of a pudgy little man in a tiger-print Hawaiian shirt.**

"That's very offensive Pedro," Dionysus said, playing with his soda can. "Disrespect me again and I will turn you into a hamster and have Ares run you over with his Harley."

**"You do know how to play pinochle?" Mr. D eyed me suspiciously.**

**"I'm afraid not," I said.**

**"I'm afraid not, sir," he said.**

**"Sir," I repeated. I was liking the camp director less and less.**

"We all do," said Travis.  
"He called me Caitlin!" said Connor.

**"Well," he told me, "it is, along with gladiator fighting and Pac-Man, one of the greatest games ever invented by humans. I would expect all civilized young men to know the rules."**

"Well, Percy isn't exactly civilized," grinned Beckendorf.

**"I'm sure the boy can learn," Chiron said.**

**"Please," I said, "what is this place? What am I doing here? Mr. Brun — Chiron — why would you go to Yancy Academy just to teach me?"**

**Mr. D snorted. "I asked the same question."**

**The camp director dealt the cards. Grover flinched every time one landed in his pile. Chiron smiled at me sympathetically, the way he used to in Latin class, as if to let me know that no matter what my average was, I was his star student. He expected me to have the right answer.**

"Like what Dumbledore expects from me," Harry sighed.

Dumbledore sighed. "I am sorry, Harry."

**"Percy," he said. "Did your mother tell you nothing?'**

**"She said ..." I remembered her sad eyes, looking out over the sea. "She told me she was afraid to send me here, even though my father had wanted her to. She said that once I was here, I probably couldn't leave. She wanted to keep me close to her."**

**"Typical," Mr. D said. "That's how they usually get killed. Young man, are you bidding or not?"**

**"What?" I asked.**

**He explained, impatiently, how you bid in pinochle, and so I did.**

**"I'm afraid there's too much to tell," Chiron said. "I'm afraid our usual orientation film won't be sufficient."**

"That's why you were so clueless and had no idea about anything whatsoever," Annabeth said.

"Yeah," Percy said.

**"Orientation film?" I asked.**

**"No," Chiron decided. "Well, Percy. You know your friend Grover is a satyr. You know—" he pointed to the horn in the shoe box — "that you have killed the Minotaur. No small feat, either, lad. What you may not know is that great powers are at work in your life. Gods — the forces you call the Greek gods — are very much alive."**

**I stared at the others around the table. I waited for somebody to yell, Not! But all I got was Mr. D yelling, "Oh, a royal marriage. Trick! Trick!" He cackled as he tallied up his points.**

**"Mr. D," Grover asked timidly, "if you're not going to eat it, could I have your Diet Coke can?"**

"Do cans taste good?" Ron asked Grover.

"Yeah, I suppose," said Grover.

**"Eh? Oh, all right."**

**Grover bit a huge shard out of the empty aluminum can and chewed it mournfully.**

Everyone stared at him, and Grover turned pink.

"What?" he asked defensively. "They taste good! And they're very nutritious!"

**"Wait," I told Chiron. "You're telling me there's such a thing as god."**

**"Well, now," Chiron said. "God — capital G, God. That's a different matter altogether. We shan't deal with the metaphysical."**

**"Metaphysical? But you were just talking about—"**

**"Ah, gods, plural, as in, great beings that control the forces of nature and human endeavors: the immortal gods of Olympus. That's a smaller matter."**

"You're probably confusing him," Sally told Chiron.  
"SMALLER MATTER?" Zeus bellowed.  
"Forgive me, Mrs. Jackson and my lord," said Chiron.

Zeus grumbled and Sally smiled at him.

**"Smaller?"**

**"Yes, quite. The gods we discussed in Latin class."**

**"Zeus," I said. "Hera. Apollo. You mean them."**

**And there it was again, distant thunder on a cloudless day.**

**"Young man," said Mr. D, "I would really be less casual about throwing those names around, if I were you."**

**"But they're stories," I said. "They're myths, to explain lightning and the seasons and stuff. They're what people believed before there was science."**

"Still confusing me," Percy said.

Chiron sighed. "Maybe I should've shown you the orientation film."  
"Yeah, you should've," said all the demigods.

**"Science!" Mr. D scoffed. "And tell me, Perseus Jackson" — I flinched when he said my real name, which I never told anybody — "what will people think of your 'science' two thousand years from now?" Mr. D continued. "Hmm? They will call it primitive mumbo jumbo. That's what. Oh, I love mortals — they have absolutely no sense of perspective. They think they've come so-o-o far. And have they, Chiron? Look at this boy and tell me."**

"Hey," said Percy. "I just beat a Minotaur and Fury! Give me a break!"

**I wasn't liking Mr. D much, but there was something about the way he called me mortal, as if... he wasn't. It was enough to put a lump in my throat, to suggest why Grover was dutifully minding his cards, chewing his soda can, and keeping his mouth shut.**

"Just follow Grover's advice," said Annabeth. "Please, Percy, tell me you did."  
Percy ducked his head and mumbled something like, "When you disappeared."

**"Percy," Chiron said, "you may choose to believe or not, but the fact is that immortal means immortal. Can you imagine that for a moment, never dying? Never fading? Existing, just as you are, for all time?"**

"That's a scary thought," said Percy. "Me existing for all eternity."

"It is a scary thought," agreed Nico, shuddering. "Like Thalia existing for all eternity."

Thalia slapped him.

**I was about to answer, off the top of my head, that it sounded like a pretty good deal, but the tone of Chiron's voice made me hesitate.**

**"You mean, whether people believed in you or not," I said.**

**"Exactly," Chiron agreed. "If you were a god, how would you like being called a myth, an old story to explain lightning? What if I told you, Perseus Jackson, that some day people would call you a myth, just created to explain how little boys can get over losing their mothers?"**

"Chiron!" Sally said, shocked.  
"No offense, but that was below the belt," said Poseidon.

"It was," Percy agreed.

"I'm sorry, Percy," said Chiron.

**My heart pounded. He was trying to make me angry for some reason, but I wasn't going to let him. I said, "I wouldn't like it. But I don't believe in gods."**

**"Oh, you'd better," Mr. D murmured. "Before one of them incinerates you."**

****"Dionysus," Poseidon said warningly.

Dionysus rolled his eyes.

**Grover said, "P-please, sir. He's just lost his mother. He's in shock."**

****"Thank you, Grover," Sally said. Grover blushed.

**"A lucky thing, too," Mr. D grumbled, playing a card. "Bad enough I'm confined to this miserable job, working with boys who don't even believe."**

**He waved his hand and a goblet appeared on the table, as if the sunlight had bent, momentarily, and woven the air into glass. The goblet filled itself with red wine.**

****"Dionysus," Zeus said.

"My mistake," Dionysus replied.

**My jaw dropped, but Chiron hardly looked up.**

**"Mr. D," he warned, "your restrictions."**

**Mr. D looked at the wine and feigned surprise.**

**"Dear me." He looked at the sky and yelled, "Old habits! Sorry!"**

**More thunder.**

****"Zeus doesn't believe you," Apollo and Hermes sing-songed.  
"Oh, shut it, Alissa and Hannah," said Dionysus.  
"He does that to gods too?" Neville asked, confused.  
"Only when they irritate me," Dionysus replied.

**Mr. D waved his hand again, and the wineglass changed into a fresh can of Diet Coke.**

****"Transfiguration?" Hermione guessed.

Athena nodded. "You wizards and witches would call it that."

**He sighed unhappily, popped the top of the soda, and went back to his card game.**

**Chiron winked at me. "Mr. D offended his father a while back, took a fancy to a wood nymph who had been declared off-limits."**

**"A wood nymph," I repeated, still staring at the Diet Coke can like it was from outer space.**

**"Yes," Mr. D confessed. "Father loves to punish me. The first time, Prohibition. Ghastly! Absolutely horrid ten years! The second time — well, she really was pretty, and I couldn't stay away — the second time, he sent me here. Half-Blood Hill. Summer camp for brats like you. '_Be a better influence_,' he told me. '_Work with youths rather than tearing them down_.' Ha. Absolutely unfair."**

**Mr. D sounded about six years old, like a pouting little kid.**

****"Hey!" Dionysus pouted. "I did not!"

"Yeah, you did," nodded Percy.

**"And ..." I stammered, "your father is ..."**

**"_Di immortales_, Chiron," Mr. D said. "I thought you taught this boy the basics. My father is Zeus, of course."**

****"Well, I didn't see that stupid orientation film," Percy said.

**I ran through D names from Greek mythology. Wine. The skin of a tiger. The satyrs that all seemed to work here. The way Grover cringed, as if Mr. D were his master.**

**"You're Dionysus," I said. "The god of wine."**

****"Did two people not numerously tell you that names have power?" asked Ginny.

Percy huffed and folded his arms over his chest.

**Mr. D rolled his eyes. "What do they say, these days, Grover? Do the children say, 'Well, duh!'?"**

**"Y-yes, Mr. D."**

**"Then, well, duh! Percy Jackson. Did you think I was Aphrodite, perhaps?"**

****Aphrodite chucked her lip gloss tube at Dionysus's eye. "OW!" She grinned, satisfied.

**"You're a god."**

**"Yes, child."**

**"A god. You."**

****The other Olympians snorted.

Dionysus's eyes flickered with fire.

**He turned to look at me straight on, and I saw a kind of purplish fire in his eyes, a hint that this whiny, plump little man was only showing me the tiniest bit of his true nature. I saw visions of grape vines choking unbelievers to death, drunken warriors insane with battle lust, sailors screaming as their hands turned to flippers, their faces elongating into dolphin snouts. I knew that if I pushed him, Mr. D would show me worse things. He would plant a disease in my brain that would leave me wearing a strait-jacket in a rubber room for the rest of my life.**

****Everyone shivered and shuddered at the thought.

**"Would you like to test me, child?" he said quietly.**

**"No. No, sir."**

**The fire died a little. He turned back to his card game. "I believe I win."**

**"Not quite, Mr. D," Chiron said. He set down a straight, tallied the points, and said, "The game goes to me."**

**I thought Mr. D was going to vaporize Chiron right out of his wheelchair, but he just sighed through his nose, as if he were used to being beaten by the Latin teacher.**

****"Over and over," Dionysus grumbled.

"Get used to it, because Chiron rocks the pinochle table," grinned Travis.

**He got up, and Grover rose, too.**

**"I'm tired," Mr. D said. "I believe I'll take a nap before the sing-along tonight. But first, Grover, we need to talk, again, about your less-than-perfect performance on this assignment."**

**Grover's face beaded with sweat. "Y-yes, sir."**

**Mr. D turned to me. "Cabin eleven, Percy Jackson. And mind your manners."**

**He swept into the farmhouse, Grover following miserably.**

**"Will Grover be okay?" I asked Chiron.**

**Chiron nodded, though he looked a bit troubled. "Old Dionysus isn't really mad. He just hates his job. He's been ... ah, grounded, I guess you would say, and he can't stand waiting another century before he's allowed to go back to Olympus."**

****"Why us?" the demigods all asked Zeus. Zeus sighed.

"Dionysus hates demigods, so it's punishment for him," Zeus explained.  
"And for us!" said Silena Beauragard.

Zeus waved his hand. "Read."

**"Mount Olympus," I said. "You're telling me there really is a palace there?"**

****"A huge one," said Annabeth. "It's so beautiful."

**"Well now, there's Mount Olympus in Greece. And then there's the home of the gods, the convergence point of their powers, which did indeed used to be on Mount Olympus. It's still called Mount Olympus, out of respect to the old ways, but the palace moves, Percy, just as the gods do."**

**"You mean the Greek gods are here? Like ... in America?"**

**"Well, certainly. The gods move with the heart of the West."**

**"The what?"**

**"Come now, Percy. What you call 'Western civilization.' Do you think it's just an abstract concept? No, it's a living force. A collective consciousness that has burned bright for thousands of years. The gods are part of it. You might even say they are the source of it, or at least, they are tied so tightly to it that they couldn't possibly fade, not unless all of Western civilization were obliterated. The fire started in Greece. Then, as you well know — or as I hope you know, since you passed my course — the heart of the fire moved to Rome, and so did the gods. Oh, different names, perhaps — Jupiter for Zeus, Venus for Aphrodite, and so on — but the same forces, the same gods."**

****Thalia shifted slightly.  
"You okay?" Annabeth asked her.  
"'Course," she said. **(A.N. Heroes of Olympus hasn't happened, but Thalia remembers Jason.) **

******"And then they died."**

Everyone groaned and facepalmed.  
"You are SO stupid," Thalia groaned.  
Everyone was groaning and commenting while Percy, red, fired back protests.

**"Died? No. Did the West die? The gods simply moved, to Germany, to France, to Spain, for a while. Wherever the flame was brightest, the gods were there. They spent several centuries in England. All you need to do is look at the architecture.**

****"England? Really?" asked Hermione, surprised.  
"Of course, Ms. Granger," said McGonagall.

"Your first name's Minerva, is it not?" said Athena. "Minerva is my Roman form. Obviously your mother has heard of Roman Mythology."  
"Yes, she has," said McGonagall. "She named me that because she thought I was always wise."  
"You are, Minnie!" said Sirius.  
"Mr. Black, please refrain from calling me 'Minnie'," McGonagall said sharply.

"Whatever you say, Minnie," Sirius grinned.

**People do not forget the gods. Every place they've ruled, for the last three thousand years, you can see them in paintings, in statues, on the most important buildings. And yes, Percy, of course they are now in your United States. Look at your symbol, the eagle of Zeus. Look at the statue of Prometheus in Rockefeller Center, the Greek facades of your government buildings in Washington. I defy you to find any American city where the Olympians are not prominently displayed in multiple places. Like it or not — and believe me, plenty of people weren't very fond of Rome, either — America is now the heart of the flame. It is the great power of the West. And so Olympus is here. And we are here."**

****"WHOO! AMERICA! DEMIGODS!" the demigods, satyr and Oracle yelled.

The students laughed.

**It was all too much, especially the fact that I seemed to be included in Chiron's we, as if I were part of some club.**

**"Who are you, Chiron? Who ... who am I?"**

**Chiron smiled. He shifted his weight as if he were going to get up out of his wheelchair, but I knew that was impossible. He was paralyzed from the waist down.**

**"Who are you?" he mused. "Well, that's the question we all want answered, isn't it? But for now, we should get you a bunk in cabin eleven. There will be new friends to meet. And plenty of time for lessons tomorrow. Besides, there will be smores at the campfire tonight, and I simply adore chocolate."**

****"Like Remus," said Tonks.

Remus blushed.  
"Like Dumbledore and lemon drops," said Fred.

**And then he did rise from his wheelchair. But there was something odd about the way he did it. His blanket fell away from his legs, but the legs didn't move. His waist kept getting longer, rising above his belt. At first, I thought he was wearing very long, white velvet underwear,**

****Everyone cracked up as Percy slammed his head down onto the table, groaning.

"You were s-so stupid, P-percy," Nico said while laughing his butt off.

**but as he kept rising out of the chair, taller than any man, I realized that the velvet underwear wasn't underwear; it was the front of an animal, muscle and sinew under coarse white fur. And the wheelchair wasn't a chair. It was some kind of container, an enormous box on wheels, and it must've been magic, because there's no way it could've held all of him. A leg came out, long and knobby-kneed, with a huge polished hoof. Then another front leg, then hindquarters, and then the box was empty, nothing but a metal shell with a couple of fake human legs attached.**

****"Yay, a centaur!" beamed Luna. Suddenly, the doors opened. Umbridge walked in angrily.

"Mr. and Mr. Weasley," she said.  
"I wondered where she was," Hermione said.  
"You're the only one who cares," replied Ron.

"Hi, Umbridge," said the students.

"Mr. and Mr. Weasley locked me in my office!" she exclaimed. "Detention!" She looked at Chiron, the Olympians and the demigods. "Who might they be, Dumbledore?"  
So Dumbledore explained everything and Umbridge sat at the teacher's table huffily.

**I stared at the horse who had just sprung from the wheelchair: a huge white stallion. But where its neck should be was the upper body of my Latin teacher, smoothly grafted to the horse's trunk.**

**"What a relief," the centaur said. "I'd been cooped up in there so long, my fetlocks had fallen asleep. Now, come, Percy Jackson. Let's meet the other campers."**

****"I'm done," Apollo said.  
"I'll read!" said Nico.


	7. Emergerd Am SO SORRY

I am currently working on another project, so it'll be a little until I update. PLEASE READ MY FRIEND'S HARRY POTTER AND PERCY JACKSON CROSSOVER, The Children Of The Prophecy (I think that's the name) by Iridescent-Patronus!

IT'S TOTALLY AWESOME! (Starkid reference)!


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